Day 2: Bali Adventures and Crazy Shopping Bargains

Good morning (or whenever you are all reading this around the world)! Day 2 of my Bali adventure was definitely happening when I woke up at a lovely 5am here this morning. Bali is 3 hours behind Australian time (where I live anyway) so it was still weird adjusting to the time difference.

After waiting what felt like forever for it finally to be an appropriate time to have breakfast, we went and ate and the food was amazing.

After breakfast we knew we wanted to experience some of this Bali shopping everyone goes on and on about so we got our hats and went out to the streets we had looked at the night before. It is a very different experience than shopping in Australia, obviously. I usually like to take my time to look in stores and see what’s around before making any choices but this became increasingly difficult when all the people on the streets are so in your face trying to make you buy stuff. Kieran bought a couple of things and then we were just too hot we left the streets and came back for a swim.

Swimming, drinking and eating was the next thing we did (big surprise there). After relaxing in the pool for a couple of hours we walked up the street a bit and had some lunch and then we thought that we would give this shopping thing another try. So we covered ourselves in sunscreen, grabbed our hats again and headed to Kuta to do some shopping.

It was insane. Kieran and I got used to bartering prices and saying no thanks and moving on in places that we had no interest in. In the end though we ended up walking away, wallets slightly lighter carrying as much stuff as we could.

More swimming, more relaxing and more eating were called for for the rest of the day. We also went shopping again at night and I bought more stuff (if possible). I love a good bargain so shopping here is definitely way more fun than at home.

Another ‘early’ night before another busy day. Tomorrow is our last day staying at the Melasti Beach Resort in Legion before moving onto our next resort in Seminyak and I am way too excited.

Follow my adventures on my Instagram and Snspchat (both usernames are @krristelley).

Tomorrows adventures I am sure will involve more shopping, lots of picture taking and exploring and who even knows what else?

Thanks for reading,

Kristelle xx

Day 1: Bali Adventures

Bali adventures: Day 1

So, for this little blog post series I am going to be writing daily posts (but as I have mentioned in the last few posts, the probably won’t be posted daily). I have already written a “What’s in my Suitcase” post (which you can check out here).

Day 1 of the adventure starts the second you wake up for the day ready go. We had a 10am flight to Depsnar, so naturally you have to wake up at 4am like we did. Usually I am the grumpiest person in the mornings but today was different (probably because I was way too excited for what I knew lay ahead).

We got to the airport (probably just before 6am?) we had some breaky, got a coffee to wake ourselves up and then checked our suitcases. After all this was done we had to go through customs blah blah the usual airport stuff and then came the duty free shopping. You are only allowed to take 1L of alcohol (per person over 18) into Bali and you’re allowed just over 2.25L on the way back. We purchased our alcohol for both (you can pick up the ‘way back’ alcohol when you come back into Australia.

Next came the plane. Its almost a 7 hour flight here today from Sydney, so we had to be prepared for a lot of sitting down. I brought my laptop with me (and surprise, surprise) I am catching up and planning ahead my blog posts. I am currently writing this an hour after take off (748km from Sydney and 3868km until Denpasar, Bali). I am travelling at 397km/hour and am roughly 40,000 feet above Australia. I haven’t been on a plane since I was 10 years old (which was 10 years ago), so it is all quite exciting.

Arrival

We arrived finally! Took forever to collect our bags but finally we were off into a ‘cab’. I was so shocked at the complete lack of road rules! They drive all over the place here but somehow it works so well for them that no one crashed. Motorbikes everywhere, people without helmets and 3+ people sitting on one tiny bike!

Arriving at the resort was interesting, the first thing I wanted was a mixture of “I’m starving let’s eat” and “let me jump in this heavenly pool”.

We opted for food and a cocktail first and I was amazed by how cheap everything really is here!

After a meal we headed straight to the pool and Kieran, of course, was extremely pleased with the pool bar. It was so warm and so relaxing I can not even put into words how at ease with life I was.

After a swim, we showered and decided to wander the streets and look at the shopping that we knew we would encounter the next day. Although everyone tries to sell you everything, it was overall a fun experience. Buying alcohol from the local ‘mini-marts’ every 100m and experiencing the craziness of it all was amazing.

Eventually we made our way back to the resort and finished the evening with a pizza, drink and a shower before collapsing into bed awaiting the second day of our adventure.

Keep up with my travels on Instagram and Snapchat (both usernames are @krristelley )

Day 2 adventures up next,

Kristelle xxx

5 year anniversary

I'm really sad I haven't gotten around to writing this post up or actually posting it. It's been a crazy couple of weeks but I needed to write about this. 

It's Monday now (here in Australia anyway, around lunchtime) and last Thursday (24th of September) it was my anniversary. So basically anyone who knows me will know that I'm not usually OTT with my love (I'm not sure why, I'm just not big on hugging everyone and PDA but whatever), but I feel I'm allowed to be soppy and in love on my anniversary because it's special to me. 

24th of September 2015 marks 5 years that I have been with my high school sweetheart. I've written a post previously all about how we met and how our relationship came to be, so if you wanna check that out I'll just link it here.

I believe any amount of time together, no matter how short or how long should be celebrated because it really is a special thing. 

This year, I spent the day babysitting some kids and we witched possibly the worst movie I have seen in a long time (Pixels-- yeah I don't recommend this for anyone lol) and Kieran spend the day working. We didn't really have anything planned and we weren't buying each other presents because a couple of weeks ago we went to the snow as an early anniversary gift to each other- I'll link that post here if you want to check it out. 

All I wanted was a nice quiet night in, but anyway. About 5pm he called me an let me know he was home from work and would be over soon. He got to my house and we sat around and watched a bit of Arrow (I am absolutely obsessed with this show right now- but we only watch it together so we both will be up to the same episodes, sigh).

After a while he said let's go to the city for dinner, so he told me to get dressed (I said I had to do my make up also, but typical Kieran fashion he told me I look better without it- lie), he had spare clothes in a bag and even though the weather was ugly and rainy, he drove us to the city. He also picked Hurricanes for dinner (really nice place for steaks and ribs) and the silly thing didn't think to even make a booking. We had to wait quite a while for a table, but it was okay. In the end we were so hungry when we finally got seated I swore I could've eaten anything. 

He had ribs and chicken and I had a steak and it was a good meal. I had a lot of fun talking and laughing out at dinner with him and that's how I think it should always be. After dinner finished it was about 10pm so we headed home (he had work the next day still) and just hung out and went to bed not much later. 

I will say the highlight (???) of the next morning was when his phone rang multiple times at 5:30am from his work to go early.. But the cherry on top of this beautiful wake up call, is that he sleeps through anything. The phone woke me up and then I had to try wake him up to take the call (which is pretty difficult honestly). Best part was after he left for work I got to go back to sleep :)

Writing this now makes me realise that we actually sound sort of old and boring, but that's the way I like it. A simple meal and being lazy watching one of my favourite shows on Netflix, not sure what more I could ask for. We had had the anniversary adventure, it was time to chill. Plus my birthday is really close to our anniversary so I never expect or ask for anything crazy over the top. 

I think I'll end this little post with the collage of photos that I posted on Instagram and Facebook. 

- The top left: photo is from the end of 2010 when we had just starting dating and spending time at each others houses. I can't even express how much I laugh at that photo. Why am I wearing bunny ears? Look at Kieran's hair! It's also when I though editing all my photos in toycamera analogcolour taken on my Mac was the coolest thing ever... Wow

- Top middle: The year was 2011. This photo was taken in our little mini 'photoshoot' I had a family friend do for us at our Year 10 formal. I still look the same and pretty awkward at that. Kieran has a similar hair cut, bit shorter and no 'rats tail' this time (I don't think you can see it in the last photo though). 

- Top right: Year is 2012. This photo was taken before we both got super drunk at Kieran's first work Christmas party. He was a first year apprentice and I was in Year 11 in high school haha. We both have the same hair styles from the previous year and we both look super young haha

- Bottom left: Year is 2013. I think we both look a bit older in this photo. I look older thanks to make up and fake tan and Kieran got a new hair style haha. This photo was taken at my Year 12 formal (which sadly Kieran wasn't allowed to attend because it was students only).

- Bottom middle: Year is 2014. This photo was taken before (once again) we went out and got super drunk lol. Another Christmas party courtesy of Kieran's awesome workplace. Kieran got shorter hair again. This was also after my first year of university was complete and I was working two jobs at this point so I remember the night out was absolutely awesome. 

- Bottom right: Finally we get to the year 2015 aka now. This photo was taken about a month ago and was a pretty good day. At a wedding for one of Kieran's work friends we both got to dress up nicely (I think I appreciated this more than him because he didn't like wearing a suit lol) and we got to drink (lots) and eat good food and enjoy the love. I have (yes still) kept the same hairstyle over the last 5 years (well same for most of my life tbh). Boob length blonde hair (never dyed). Kieran got shorter hair (again) and I think it suits him like this- he looks more mature. Also I think the difference in our sizes is pretty funny over the years. We both started as these small skinny kids and now he is pretty big and I've grown into my curves a bit more too haha. 

I like looking at the old photos, so many memories and it makes me laugh honestly. 

Thanks if you stuck through and read this whole post, I know it probably wasn't that interesting to anyone. Stay tuned, it's almost my birthday!

Kristelle xx

Instagram: @krristelley

Sisters

Having a sister is a wonderful thing. Your very own bestfriend/hair stylist/ make up artist/ partner in crime (and way way more) from the beginning. You may hate her at times but you will always love her. 

I'm (un)lucky enough to have a little sister of my very own. 

I used to get annoyed when she would copy everything that I say/ do/ like/ wanted/ bought but as my mother ever so kindly pointed out all these years, 'imitation is the highest form of flattery'.

I think you love playing with toys together when you're young (barbies and polly pockets for us) and playing other silly little games (doctors, teachers and spies were our favourites). Then you get to that age where all you can possibly do is fight with each other. You hate each other more than you like each other and you can't stand to share anything let alone talk to each other sometimes. 

I am happily past that age now (for the most part) and get to enjoy all the perks that come with having a sister again.

You want someone to paint your nails?

Drive you to the train station to go clubbing?

Cook dinner with?

Go out to random places to get food because you're hungry?

Fashion advice?

Need to borrow an outfit?

Wondering if your hair looks good today?

Have the sudden urge to go shopping and don't want to go alone?

Need help fake tanning the middle of your back?

Want to go on a maccas run but don't want to go alone?

Need someone to exercise with you?

Need someone to hang out with just so you don't feel lonely?

All of the above for me are reasons why I actually love having a sister. As much as she annoys the hell out of me, I know I will always have someone there to do these things with me and help me out when I need it. Best part is, we live in the same house so there is literally next to no effort to do all of these things together. No need to make the same effort to hang out with a friend and you can be mean to each other and know that at the end of the day you will always have each others backs.

I appreciate having a sister (but I'm still glad I'm the older one).

Kristelle xx

Instagram: @krristelley

Updates

So life has been pretty crazy lately. All I have seemed to be doing is working and now I'm back at university for a new semester, the stress really seems to be piling on.

Even though life is getting crazy busy again (well a different kind of busy than it has been during holidays) I am happy to say that I am at least feeling better now and want to get back into the swing of things. 

Regular routine is back! This semester I am going to be at university twice a week for three classes and I am taking a fourth unit online (only offer, but works out pretty well for me in the end anyway!) I am aiming to work about 5 times a week, workout 5-6 times a week and have regular blog posts (hopefully all about something interesting) online for you all to read :-)

I like keeping busy and having such a huge variety of things to do (and begin able to spend time with my beautiful friends) makes me happy!

I have so many exciting adventures coming up in the next few months because this half of the year is defiantly the busiest for me!

I will have a new post up soon, just wanted to quickly update you all on life and let everyone know I have a smile on my face again. Here's some happy photos to end my blog to prove that :) Also want to say how happy I am that us folk down here in Australia are in our last month of Winter! I am definitely way way too excited for it to be Summer again.

Instagram: @krristelley

How Do I Feel About Sports?

I know most people who know me will automatically agree with me when I say I'm not a huge fan of sports. And then I'm sure a lot of people will ask why not? Let me just start by saying I wish I enjoyed sports. I really do. And then going with that, I wish Australian sports culture was more like what you see in American sports culture. You know what I'm talking about, even if I have just gotten this image from TV and the movies (I am 95% sure it is actually like this in real life though, based on the Americans I have met and spoken with). Everyone in the town gets behind the team, people live and breathe sport, sports events are like a major thing, high school sports teams; everyone knows everything about them... I think you all get what I mean.

I just find Australian sporting... dull? I think that's the word I would use. When I was younger I was really into it. I loved netball (most of the world will probably be wondering what that is hey) and I would watch matches, know players names and be pretty invested in who won. I also loved the NRL (football) and loved my team. I would go to games and be sad when we lost and happy when we won.  There's more but those are just the main two that I cared about or was invested in.

I really would love to find that spirit for sports I once had. It should be fun and exciting to get together with your friends and watch a match on TV at home or at the pub or something (lol), go to games even. The other night I felt like I was re-living my younger days because I went to my first football match in at least 3 years. I went with my family, boyfriend and 2 of my best girlfriends. It was a lot of fun (even though our team ended up losing 36-30 and we even had a 24 point lead at one point- but let's not dwell on that please...). We went to the leagues club afterwards and at food and talked for a couple more hours and it was a good night. 

Amber, Maddie and I with one of the mascots 

You can tell these pics were taken whilst we were winning because we were all very happy

Good nights like this make me appreciate the small things so much more. I would love to be able to go to more games and have more casual nights like this and to actually care again about who wins and who loses. It makes life just that bit more interesting, you know?

Feel free to check out my Instagram @krristelley or online here because I post a lot of photos of what I do there!

Thanks for reading, 

Stelle xxx

Happy New Years 2015

New YEARS!
Little bit of a backstory here, but long story short, every new years, something goes wrong for me. Whether we go back to 2013 and my car broke, 2012 where we weren't allowed alcohol, 2011 where we weren't allowed to go out... and so on. Some where little things and some ruined the night (mostly). This year I was keen to have a good night with Kieran. We planned on heading into Manly to watch the fireworks, eat ice-cream and have a few drinks before heading home, having a bonfire on the beach, drinking and seeing if we could see the Sydney fireworks from where we were.

The night went something a little more like this:
5pm- I'm tired from drinking all day
6pm- Let's get ready
7pm- Okay let's actually get ready
7:30pm- Let's walk to the bus stop now
7:55pm- Just missed the bus to Manly...
8:25pm- four busses have driven past us now, despite our signalling and them not being full
8:30pm- screw it, taxi it is
8:55pm- arrive at Manly just in time for fireworks
9:20pm- fireworks were pretty I am happy now, lets get a drink
9:30pm- No where good open
9:30pm- Everything closed
9:40pm- Found alcohol and it's way overpriced
9:45pm- Let's get a kebab
9:50pm- Let's go back home and make a fire instead now
10:10pm- Bus drives past us AGAIN
10:25pm- Bus arrives
10:40pm- Bus leaves us 15 min taxi ride from home (which would of taken about 2 hours to walk lol (too many steep hills and alcohol)
11pm- Arrive home
11pm- Don't want to go with friends
11:20pm- Kieran and I sit by the lake cuddling
12am- It's midnight (better kiss)
12am- Crazy people with fireworks on the beach near us
1:30am- Bed time after a huge D&M about life and the future

It wasn't a bad night, I couldn't think of anyone else I would love to bring in the New Years with (Kieran), it was just eventful as usual. But I tried to forget the bad and the annoying and focus on the good things, because it actually was a good night.

Jess and I before Manly

Kieran and I were pretty happy with our New Years Eve supply

ooooooh bad

let's see where the night
takes us

Happy New Year!

Only picture of the Manly Fireworks I got, but they were amazing

The one extreme downside I know a lot of people face after New Years, is the awful hangover! Luckily I hydrate well throughout the night, so I wasn't a victim of the New Years hangover this year. However I did wake up absolutely starving and was desperate for a good meal. So luckily cafes at home are open and Kieran and I treated ourselves to an amazing breakfast. Shoutout to AJ's in Narrabeen, your food is awesome. I had a bacon & egg roll with an iced mocha and Kieran had an 'AJ's break' with a flat white.

Food is life

I live in such a beautiful country

After breakfast we literally spent the entire day on the beach, either laying in the sand, swimming or floating around in the lake. It was the best way I could've asked to spend New Years Day. I am definitely excited to see what 2015 has in store for me.

Thanks for reading, I will post again tomorrow about my Summer so far and will continue this blog for my 2015 adventures. 

Stelle xx

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.