Ladies Day Out

Even though it is the time of the year that I should be sitting at home inside studying and not going out drinking and to social events, reading books that don't relate to my uni subjects or watching Netflix for 3 hours. Should be minimising my hours at work for a couple of weeks and not sit on my computer writing blog posts. I seem to go against this and do the complete opposite anyway!

Once such exception was the weekend that has just passed. Ladies Day at the races was so much fun I am so glad that even though the water was horrible and it rained the entire day I still went out and had a fabulous time. 

Ladies day was an excuse to get dressed up, (for most women) put some ridiculous looking fascinator on your head and call it stylish, drink copious amounts of champagne/wine/any alcohol being served, bet on horses and basically just socialise with all the other women around you. I don't participate in all of this (mostly I just enjoy dressing up and drinking alcohol) but it was definitely a good day. One to remember is probably how I am going to choose how to quote it. 

Later the same night I was also invited to go to a club and I almost didn't go. I got home after a long day at the races, put my pyjamas on, ate some food and settled down and started even laying singstar with the fam??? (Side note: I use the term fam to include those who are not actually family, but are close enough they may as well be). But I decided to put more make up on, change my clothes and go back out because in all honesty how many good stories do people have that they remember that went like this "well I was tired so I stayed at home that night....." No.

Turns out, clubbing was a crazy idea. There were barely any people in the clubs compared to what I remember a few months ago? (maybe the weather had something to do with this). The smartest ideas I had all night were:

1. Leave early enough to catch the last train home of the night so we didn't need to catch a bus
2. Get popcorn chicken and chips on the way to the train

Turns out as smart as those ideas were, number 1 turned out to be a joke and number 2 didn't even happen. Instead we walked out the club and saw the rain. I don't think I have ever seen it rain harder than it did that night when Kieran and I left the club. Of course it was uphill to get back to the train station and although we ran just to get inside quicker (it was freezing in the rain), it really did no good. When we got to the train station it looked like we had gone swimming. Tipping water out of our shoes, wringing out shirts out and me tying my hair up just so it wouldn't stick to my face. Getting home is always something I dread, but after sitting in sticky wet clothes creating a puddle around us on an air-conditioned train for 50 minutes home freezing cold and hungry, I do not want to experience that again.

Anyway, in typical fashion I will end this post by sharing some of the photos we took that day at the races.

Dress by Atmos&Here from The Iconic

One of my gorgeous bestfriends Maddie

My wonderful boyfriend Kieran 

Dodgy photo of a polaroid we took before we left

One of many glasses we drank that day 

Thanks for reading guys, 
Kristelle xx

Summer Vibes

Every time it crosses my mind to jump onto my laptop and make a blog post, I sound like a broken record. Starting everything off the same with "well, it's been a while since I made a post...". You all can't see me, but I am shaking my head and rolling my eyes at myself thinking "wow, aren't I clever? What a good way to start the post. Yep I will actually blog more often now".

Truthfully, I know I probably won't. As much as I love to write here and share my thoughts, feelings, views and opinions on life (well pretty much anything), I figure I just don't have that much going on that I know would even be remotely interesting to some people. 

Instead I'm just going to tell everyone what I am excited for this Summer and what I am thankful for right now. 

Bali holiday- 

Less than 6 weeks. First overseas holiday without my fam and first overseas holiday in almost 10 years. Pretty keen to say the least

Finishing uni sem- 

Should be first, but oh well. Done on Friday (not looking forward to the release of marks though. I've gotten lazy. Stopped trying as hard. I am disappointed in myself, but I still have another 3(?) semesters to try and make myself proud again

The mountain of books I have to read-

I recently went on a crazy shopping spree, to buy books of course. Titles I have planned to read this Summer include some new editions and some old favourites. I'll share my list and I want to write something about each book once I've read it. No promises though. Who knows if I'll even make it through half this list, but I'll try. 

1. The Truth About Forever- Sarah Dessen (oldie)
2. An Abundance of Katherines- John Green (oldie, wasn't a fan but I will give it another chance)
3. Dracula- Bram Stoker (oldie but honestly never finished the thing)
4. The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold (oldie, needs another read)
5. Looking For Alaska- John Green (oldie, probably one of my favourite books of all time)
6. Paradise- Simone Elkeles (oldie and newbie- 2 books part of a series, read the first and haven't read the second)
7. The Marriage Plot- Jeffrey Eugenides (newbie)
8. Perfect Chemistry- Simone Elkeles (newbie)
9. The Opposite of Loneliness- Marina Keegan (newbie)
10. The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath (newbie, always wanted to read this, not sure why though)
11. The Beginning of Everything- Robyn Scheneider (newbie)
12. The Virgin Suicides- Jeffery Eugenides (newbie)
13. The Power of Now- Eckhart Tolle (newbie)
14. The Pact- Jodie Picoult (oldie)
15. The Catcher in the Rye- J.D Salinger (oldie)

Beach days-

My ultimate favourite thing about Summer. The beach is my home and I am looking forward to being out there as much as I possibly can (wearing my SPF50+ sunscreen of course because I would like to avoid that sun damage if I can)

Creating my bucket list-

Last year was ridiculous, I barely got anything done on my bucket list, but hey let's try again. I'll have this post up by the end of November

That's honestly all I have in my mind right now of what I have to be excited for.

I am thankful that I am happy and healthy. 

I am thankful that I have beautiful friends whom I get to share my happiness with.

I am thankful for my family and all they do for me.

I am thankful for the amazing soul I get to call my boyfriend and whom I get to share all of life's crazy adventures with. 

I am thankful that I get to wake up each day knowing that I have a bright future and it is whatever I make of it. 

I am thankful that I have opportunities and they are endless. 

Lastly, I am thankful that in this crazy, messed up world I am finally figuring out who I am, what I want and how to get it. 

Cheesy as this is, let's end with a very spiritual quote, "Life's a climb, but the view is great". Pretty much sums up my take on life. 

Thanks for reading, next post real soon (I actually promise this- I'm probably writing it write now and saving for later).

Kristelle xxx

Weddings are Beautiful

I honestly feel like I am the only person who hasn't attended a wedding as an adult. I'm secretly jealous of everyone who has friends old enough to be getting married, cousins/aunts/uncles that are going to get married. I've been to two weddings in my life, but I was 3 and 10 so that barely counts. I wanted the fun that comes with picking out your dress and then getting ready. I wanted to be able to celebrate and enjoy that special day with everyone.

So, I still don't have friends who are getting married. But luckily my boyfriend does :) 

The other day, we attended a wedding for one of his good mates and I honestly had so much fun. The wedding was incredible and the bride was beautiful.

Blinded by the sunlight & my heels sunk halfway into the grass, but it was still all good

Kieran and I (well probably me a lot more than him) enjoyed getting ready. He cleans up nice, I might add.

Polaroids are fun & now I really want one 

I must say, the biggest disappointment of the day was that I barely got any photos on my phone (and haven't been able to locate all of the photos that were taken on other phones sadly). I got a few nice photos though, so I just really wanted to share them here, along with my congratulations to the new couple. It really was a beautiful day.

The 'cool table' as Kieran called it all night

I was very happy with what I wore as it was super comfortable and looked pretty good. My dress was from the Iconic and is the brand Lipsy and the shoes I wore to the ceremony (white heels) were also from the Iconic. I changed shoes for the reception (more comfort for dancing) and they were a pair of nude/pink heels from Forever New that I bought many years ago for my Year 10 formal. I definitely have gotten some wear out of those haha.

Thanks for reading
Kristelle xxx
Instagram: @krristelley

Is it a holiday?

I feel like I'm going crazy here. Everyone thinks that attending University is the biggest 'bludge' ever. You get to go to uni 2 or 3 times a week for a few hours each day. Do some assignments. Sit a test at the end of 12 or 13 weeks, twice a year. Doesn't add up to much does it? 

And that means plenty of time for holidays. But honestly, it's anything except a holiday for me. I'm busy all the time. I have barely had any time to myself to relax at all. Instead of studying and working, now I'm just doing more working. Working my job, babysitting and keeping on top (not even) with housework. Can I tell you it's bloody insane how quickly mountains of washing need to be done. There's barely time to sit down and relax or sleep. 

I will say though I am so thankful for the time that I have had to myself because I have gotten the chance to love Orange is the New Black and attend a couple of 'gatherings' with my friends and watch football. 

But of course, like usual when I try to have everything (work, friends, chores, TV time) I end up with no sleep. I'm tired. I'm tired of being tired. 

It's not a holiday, it's not even time away. Just a different reality for a little while and in all honesty I don't know which one stresses me out and wears me down more (okay I think I do but depending on my mood that day, my answer can change really quickly). 

Vivid Sydney + Clubbing?

Everyone out there who doesn't live in Sydney (most likely) will have absolutely no idea what I am talking with the title of this post. But I will do my absolute best to try and convey how beautiful the city of Sydney can actually be and give everyone here reading one amazing reason they should consider visiting Sydney in their lifetime (if you don't already live here that is haha). Sydney is beautiful.

I know a lot of people believe that were they live is boring, ugly or it really just isn't cool in any way whatsoever (because you are so used to it) but I beg to differ. There is beauty in everything if you look for it. I'm not particularly a huge fan of where I live (my actual suburb lol) but I find the city of Sydney (where I classify myself to live) beautiful, as is so much around it. If you've read my blog before you will know that I love my adventures and I love exploring new places and experiencing new things and I always try to do this and get out as much as possible. I don't like sitting at home and doing the same old things every weekend. I like new things. I never used to, but now I am accustomed to trying and enjoying (most) new experiences (or things that are different and I don't get to do too often).

Sydney Opera House for Vivid

This is no different. For those who don't know, Vivid is basically a Sydney lights festival that is held once a year during the end of May/start of June. The city is decorated beautifully and it is a great even to attend. The vibes are great.

This Saturday night just passed, I headed out into the city with a few people I love and we had a great night. The night however didn't go anything like how we had planned (which isn't even a bad thing).

The five of us (myself, Kieran, Maddie, Shiane and Jayden) went into Circular Quay with the intention of waking around enjoying Vivid and getting a meal together. It was freezing so we were all rugged up (coats, boots, jeans- the works). We stopped at the bottle shop and got some beverages (lol). I knew the city would be busy, but I didn't plan on being starving and having no idea where to eat. So one of the boys suggested we should go to Kings Cross. I was like 'uh yeah sure let's go get the pizza they have there'. We wound up catching the train to the Cross and then got our pizza. We were there, so why shouldn't we go and start drinking in a bar? So that's what we did.

Me, Kieran, Maddie and Shiane 

Kieran and myself

Then, once we were all feeling the buzz from a few drinks (and we were sick of the lame music in the bar) we headed over to one of my favourite clubs in the cross. We danced for so many hours I think I lost count. All I know is that we were having the best time and I'm so glad our night took such a random turn. There probably isn't much more I could say about the club (because what happens in the club stays in the club haha).

After we were finishing up clubbing for the night (I remember being absolutely starving which made me keen to leave haha), we went to KFC for a good feed at what I remember being about 3am. Kieran stole half our food (bulk) and then we went and caught the bus home. I definitely enjoyed standing up for almost an hour and a half while Kieran leant on my stomach and slept lol.

We arrived home around 4:30am, tired. That's the only word I had for my feelings at 4:30 in the morning. Tired. I dropped Maddie off home and then Kieran and I went straight to bed. Didn't help that it was freezing in the house because no heaters had been on because no one was home.

I'm so happy that I got to share such a fun night with such a fun bunch of people. We will definitely be at it again soon, which means I will have another blog post coming your way about a good night out!

I think that these photos tell everyone we were having a lot of fun

Thanks for reading everyone, I have a bunch of posts coming your way in the next week!
Kristelle xxxx

Friendship

I can't even explain how important friendship is to me, but I am going to use this blog post and the next 20 minutes of my evening before bed to do the best that I can. 

Today, while working, I had a lot of time to think and basically just reflect upon life. My job obviously doesn't require using my brain (normally I use this time to either a) stress over uni work or b) actually make plans in my head of what I want and what I need to do). But today I gave that a break.

I'm the kind of person who is quite content being alone for a while. There's nothing I love more than reading a good book in bed, watching some TV or even going to the beach by myself (call me weird but I find it relaxing to lay in the sun, go for a swim and drive by myself). It relaxes me and I need my 'me time'. But lately, I have realised that instead of trying to be so independent and alone all the time (don't get me wrong, being independent is a good thing) I need to keep in mind that my friendships are important. And you need those people in your life. 

Quite often I just get into moods and complain that I don't have any good friends but I've realised just how wrong I am. I was just looking in the wrong places and focusing on the wrong people. Too many negative vibes there to last me a lifetime. 

I have (and always will) my bestfriend (and boyfriend) Kieran. But I've come to realise recently just how many other kind, caring and beautiful people I do in fact have in my life. Those people who will text you to check up on you and wish you're having a nice day. The people who do make time to see you and want to do fun things together. The ones who you can talk to about anything and everything and there is never an awkward moment. Some of them may even be reading this post. And if they are I really hope you beautiful souls realise I am talking about you and that I really do appreciate you for being in my life (not matter how little or how long you've been in it). 

Focus on keeping the people who will keep it real with you around. Forget about the people who forget about you. It's what I am trying to do. I hope it works. 

I know I am not alone in having spent too many days and nights alone sad because my 'friends' didn't want to hang out with me. It's been a hard lesson and sometimes it is hard to let go and move on from people who you thought you were going to be friends with forever, but people change. Life changes. 

Positive vibes, love and happiness to all and thank you for reading my post about friendship.

Kristelle xxx

Excited about...

Hey everyone! So I've been feeling a bit down lately with some of the crappiness that uni holidays brings (so much study, assignments to complete and I seem to work extra just to make myself feel like I am doing something worthwhile).

I thought I would make a little post to remind myself about all of the exciting things that I have coming up this year so I don't get disheartened (and so I know I do have fun things to look forward to).

1. Camping trip at the end of April- 

probably the easiest to focus on right now because it actually is so close (but feels so far away). We are visiting somewhere up the coast that I have been dying to go and see and are planning on doing a heap of fun things (I will post more about it after we have been!)

2. End of semester- 

I know I just said holidays are stressful, but that is mid-sem break when we get 2 weeks of stress because uni is not over and there is so much work to do. Break between semesters is different because we can actually take a breath and relax. Plus my friends and I agreed that if we tried hard this semester and got good results then we may reward ourselves with a road trip

3. Snow- 

Kieran and I missed out on going to New Zealand this year to go snowboarding with his friends because it was too expensive, BUT we are still going to get to go to the snow this year. We will just be going to either Perisher or Thredbo instead but I am excited because I have never been to the snow with Kieran before and I want to get back out on the mountain and go snowboarding again

4. My anniversary-

Okay so this year is 5 years. I don't know why I am so excited but come on, it's 5 years! I think our plan was pretty much no presents but spend the money on our trip to the snow. I love that. I'm not particularly a present oriented person, I'd rather spend the money on actually doing something crazy and adventurous. I really hope this happens because I am way too excited already

5. My birthday-

This year I will be the big 20. No longer a teenager. No reason for me to be overly excited, but I love my birthday and I love my family and close friends so I know I have this to look forward to

6. Christmas- 

I like the food and enjoy the family time. Enough said

7. Bali-

Probably the biggest one of all, happening just after Christmas and over the New Years. I haven't been overseas since I was 11 or 12 and this is going to be the best. I can't wait

8. Mum's birthday-

I will be helping her throw a party because this year she is 40 and that is something to celebrate! Plus I just love my mum

9. My sister's birthday

She will be 18 this year and if that's not scary/crazy/exciting to know that my baby sister will be 18 then I don't know what is! (plus I totally called dibs on taking her out for the first time)

10. My sister's formal-

Okay so these are starting to be about other people, but I'm still 100% looking forward to these things. She has already asked me to help her look for dresses, figure out her hair and make-up, accessories, shoes, just basically all the fun things. I am so excited to help her with everything and I can not wait to see how everything turns out on the night (even though it will not be until September)

11. I should of just started with this before 9 and 10 but- watching my sister grow up!

This year is so exciting for her and as a proud big sister it is therefore exciting for me. She will finish high school, graduate, complete her HSC, formal, turn 18, and go to schoolies (I'm just keen for the stories of craziness for that one).

I know this won't be all I have to look forward to either, which is another thing that makes me excited. This is only the planned! I have totally improved my own mood by about 500% in writing this post. Thanks to anyone who actually read it!

Until next post, 

Stelle xx

Am I Sober?

So I've been divided on this for a very, very long time. I live in Australia and I am currently 19 years old. The legal drinking age here is 18. But if I am being completely honest (and I am right now) where I lived as a teenager, the people I know and people I went to school with all started drinking around 13/14. I think I had my first drink when I was 14 (one drink, no big deal?) then when I attended parties from probably 15 and on, there was always alcohol around so I would always drink it (everyone else did so what was the big deal?).

Looking back on this now, I can not believe I did that. Sure I didn't drink much (because how much does a small 15 year old girl actually need to drink before they are drunk, answer: not much at all). It was probably the worst thing I could do for my body! Even though it might have been once or twice a month when I went to a party, it was more than it should of been. 

There are times I can remember (pretty ironic that I use that word considering I don't remember the nights at all, more so the consequences of said nights) where I didn't know what I was doing. Parties that police showed up to, times I would throw up everywhere (classy, I know) and the countless hangovers I had the next day. Not to mention that it became worse when I was 17, had many friends who were already 18 (easier access to alcohol) and the fact that I had my license and I was always too scared to drive pretty much the entire next day after a night out (so I should of been).

This was one of the worst nights I ever had out. Didn't have much to drink
but was sick enough not to remember a thing. This night my friends told me
they think my drink was spiked

Once I turned 18, the novelty of alcohol was no where near as big as I thought it would be. Everyone makes 18 out to be a big deal because you can go clubbing and legally drink, smoke, gamble etc. Sure, I went clubbing 5 months after I turned 18. I still drank regularly though (mostly still parties and "gatherings" with my friends).

I am now 19, I turn 20 is less than 6 months and I am over it. I am over the hangovers, the sickness, the drama that intoxicated people cause. I am over the stupidity of the drunk people, the desperation of drunk guys and girls in clubs and I am over the sleaziness people seem to think it is okay to bring about when they have been drinking. 

I honestly don't remember when exactly my last drink was. I remember probably 2 months ago sitting down at home after work one night and having a glass of wine while I was eating cheese (how adult of me). I went clubbing about a month ago and had one drink before I got there and I had a bouncer harass me about my alcohol intake for the night (I was probably looking bored and tired waiting to get into the club, not sloppy and drunk like everyone else). I've been out so many times and I am always the first to say I am happy to drive. My boyfriend quite enjoys that because he loves to drink beer with his mates when we are out, so I just drive. Even last Saturday I went to a gathering at my friends house for Easter and I didn't touch alcohol once. It is unappealing to me now. 

I am happy and I feel better now that I have stopped binge drinking (and yes that is exactly what I would call what I have done since I was 14). Drinking to the point where I was drunk on random nights was 'fun' at the time. But now I know better. I am trying to get back into shape as my adult metabolism already wasn't what it used to be when I was 16. I don't need the drinks to have fun anymore and I'm okay with that.

I feel like I should also add in here that my body has never been very good at processing alcohol. No matter how little or how much I consumed, I am always sick. I am sick that night and sometimes I even spend the next few days trying to recover from the one night of drinking. I get extremely bloated which leads to me feeling sad and self conscious and there's no reason I should make myself feel like that if I don't have to. But yeah, it's just not for me.

That's not to say I am going to preach about how drinking is stupid and tell everyone not to do it. I've made my choices for myself and I am extremely happy with them. I'm not going to shun my friends for drinking or anything (lol) I just don't want to be pressured or looked down upon because I say no (sometimes that happens, but I'm not overly fussed). As long as people do not put themselves or especially others in danger from their drinking (fighting, driving or anything else that is dangerous) then I say drink as much or as little as you want. 

Thanks for reading, I would love to hear anyone else's opinions on the subject. Until next blog post!

Stelle xx 

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

Merry Christmas 2014

Christmas time (basically the whole month of December) is the busiest time of the year for me. Just when I think I am going to be able to relax and enjoy my time off uni, I have to work literally ever single day. I guess that's the beauty of having a summer job at a water theme park AND working in retail. So, it wasn't (and still isn't much of a break for me).

This is my first post of 2015, so christmas is well and truly over now but I would just like to have a little late post about my Christmas & New Years and to wish that all of you had a safe and happy christmas and New Years too xx

The best thing about having so many people I call family is all of the Christmas celebrations I got to have. There was our Christmas Eve Eve (23rd December) where Amber, Kieran, Dani, Matt & I went Christmas light looking and we even saw Santa :-) We drove around the streets singing Christmas Carols for everyone to enjoy (don't think they liked our horrid singing very much, but it was all part of the christmas spirit)

Christmas Eve Eve adventures

The real Christmas Eve, I spend the day working (like the retail slave I am) and then spent the evening with Kieran and my family. I was too excited to give Kieran one of his presents that I made him open one early (I like to give gifts especially when I know the person will love them)

He loves minions, so he got
all this minion related
stuff (loved it)

Christmas Day. I spent the morning with my mum and sister opening each others gifts. They both got me some pretty awesome gifts. I received clothes, money, shoes, handbag and a few other bits and pieces. For christmas lunch this year, I went to spend it with Kieran's family (my boyfriend). In typical Australian fashion it was a swelteringly hot day (at least 35 degrees Celsius) and we had a beautiful lunch, followed by hours of drinking and running through the sprinkler. When it decided to storm that afternoon Kieran and I went back to my place to spend the evening with my Aunty, mum and sister.

only decent photo we got on Christmas Day (notice he doesn't
take the minion bucket hat off once he got it).

Boxing Day, another day for celebrations. I took my sister and boyfriend with me to visit my Nan and Pop because I genuinely don't think I had seen them since last Christmas. We had a good day eating Christmas leftovers and swimming in the pool. That afternoon/evening Kieran and I went to my friend's places to swim some more and then have a 'spa night' at my best friends house. Let's just say it involved drinking (duh), having 11 people squash into a spa (not too fun, it fits 8 comfortably) and pizza! Oh and how could I forgot the awful selfies we all took. It was a fun night and we all crashed in random spots in the house to sleep (I dibs beds all the time first so I get a good sleep haha).

More beers and 'swimming' (note the bucket hat)

Thanks for reading guys, sorry it was so delayed! I will post about New Years in a few minutes!
Stelle xx

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! :)

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! 

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!

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!