Day 3: Bali Adventures

Good morning everyone! Another bright and early one for me today. I feel amazing. My only wish is that I had that crisp fresh air to breathe in that Australia gives me, but then I look at the breathtaking scenery and I forget that.

Another hot one today. But then again, that is every single day here. Today was the last night that we were going to be spending in Legion at Melasti Beach Resort. I must say I was super excited for this because even though the resort we were currently staying at was nice (the pools, pool bars, view, restaurant and bar were all lovely) I knew the next place we were due to stay would take my breath away. But alas, that is not until tomorrow.

Today we set out with a mission after our morning buffet breakfast and swim. We had to find a very specific tattoo shop, because that is where Kieran has planned out his whole tattoo in Bali. We had some rough directions but in these streets that really just didn’t cut it. We trekked out to the hotel he knew it was near and from there things just went crazy.

It is extremely hot and humid out, but there is no point catching a ‘taksi’ (I love their spelling haha, it just makes so much sense) because traffic is atrocious. It would’ve taken longer sitting in a car in traffic than it would of walking.

We saw a few pretty nice looking resorts on the way to Kuta where the tattoo shop is and some pretty standard stuff you would see at home that amazes me here. We found Starbucks, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s and even though they are such standard chain stores at home, it was so cool to see them in another country. McDonald’s especially, I couldn’t believe how dirt cheap their food was. Makes me miss cheap Maccas back in Aus (it’s just too expensive now for the shitty food lol).

After about 3 hours of walking, asking endless people for directions, stopping in every mini-mart (just like the standards 7/11 back home minus the petrol) for a bottle of water, stopping at a bar to have a few actual drinks and use their bathroom, paying some random shop owner 10,000 IDR (aka $1) to use their computer with internet- we finally found the place!

The place was really nice for what I thought tattoo joints in Bali would look like and the people were so friendly. We were there for barely any time at all before we headed back to our resort.

After a tiring day where we probably walked for almost 4 hours all up, we went straight for a swim, because well as per usual we were dripping in sweat.

Some more swimming, more drinks and some dinner hit the spot really well and we ended our last night in Melasti Beach Resort with quite an early one awaiting tomorrow’s adventures.

Don’t forget you can follow my adventures on Instagram and Snapchat (both are @krristelley)

Next post will be shortly,

Kristelle xxx

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

Food is life

Okay, so I don't know about everyone else here, but I am absolutely obsessed with food. Not just "oh this place will be good let's eat here" but to the point where basically everything I do is revolving around what I am going to eat that day (lol). Tbh I would love to know how many other people out there do this, so I don't feel so alone haha. 

I basically eat everything. There are very few things I won't eat (I don't even pretend that I'm allergic to cucumber anymore, I eat it now!). There are some things of course that I would prefer not to eat, but given the opportunity, I will still probably eat them.

So for those of you who have read some of my previous blog posts, you would know that I have made the choice to move towards a healthier lifestyle. Of course I still eat junk food, but I have been trying to get that out of my system. 

One of my favourite healthy foods are acai bowls. They are super tasty and you can basically just top them with any fruit, chai seeds, muesli, just basically anything you want. They were super quick and easy to make (and they make for a good Instagram photo haha). Here's a few of the best acai bowls I've had lately (and a quick recipe for my home made one!!). There's a wonderful place near me that makes the best acai bowls ever (and that's what these two pics are from). XS Espresso for anyone who lives in Sydney!

Simple acai recipe:

Acai smoothie pack

Raspberries/bluberries/strawberries (to blend in the puree)

Splash of almond milk

To top:

Fresh fruit (my favourites include: strawberries, passionfruit, banana, kiwi-fruit)

Any other toppings (I personally enjoy muesli and chai seeds)

And as for the method you just blend the first three things together and then pour it in a bowl. It should be a thick consistency. Then chop up all the fruit and make it look pretty on top of the acai mix :-)

Simple, easy and one of my favourites. 

 Apart from my acai love, yes I do love other things. Recently my boyfriend took me on a date to a wonderful gourmet burger place (I've been here once before, but this time was better). I had an amazing chicken snitzel burger and he had a kangaroo burger and we 'shared' chips. Not the best photo, but it was a good night! Moo Gourmet Burgers for anyone who lives in Sydney, look it up :)

 Another one of the most amazing meals I have had recently was just a random bestfriend lunch date. We went to this amazing place called Grano. They have a coffee shop version with just drinks and desserts and a restaurant next door. We were starving so naturally we went for the restaurant. (pictured above) we had a prosciutto pizza with rocket (and it was amazing) and some kind of chicken salad with their special dressing. We shared both of the foods and I am seriously still dying to go back there!

Last but not least, considering I am obsessed with food, I think you all can guess what else I may be obsessed with (yes it is grocery shopping). Doing the groceries calms me, and I find it relaxing to plan out and buy the foods I plan on eating for the next week. It is genuinely fun for me, even though I know most people hate it. 

I am always on the hunt for nice places to eat (mostly cool/cute cafes around the beaches) and I plan to make a list and visit all of these places and order something of the menu. I might make this a plan with my boyfriend considering we both love eating.

Kristelle xx

Instagram: @krristelley

How to Save Money

Hey everyone. So today I thought I would make a post on how to effectively save money. These days I think way too many young people have no idea how to save their money. I have way too many friends and know too many people who are always complaining that they only have $20 left in their accounts and "can not wait until their next pay so they can go and spend their money". I'll give you a brief overview of my working life & savings habits and then share some of my best money saving tips I have! 

Working Life Overview

• Pre-working life (under 14 years old): 
• Typically got money off my mum every now and then when I asked to go to the movies or something
• Other than that the money I got came from birthdays, christmas and doing chores for my mum or my aunty. 
• I used to always try and go by the "save half and spend half" rule
• First job (14-15 years old):
• Worked at McDonald's
• Wasn't very good at saving lots of money
• Would save for short term goals, i.e. concert tickets
• Mum used to make me save at least $20 each week from my pay into a savings account
• Having a key card was a bad idea: I didn't pay attention to what I would spend
• 16-17-start of being 18/the remainder of high school
• Didn't do 'formal' work
• Money came from babysitting over the years
• Saved all of that money to spend at schoolies (didn't spend it all- bonus)
• Post-high school/uni student life
• Became a workaholic
• Focused on the future
• Saves more money than I spend
• Got a job straight from school and have worked there ever since
• Each summer holidays I get an extra job (e.g. Christmas casual job and a seasonal theme park job)
• Work as much as possible during all holiday breaks so I can ease off a bit during uni time to study and focus on the uni work

So that (in very basic terms) sums up my life to do revolving around working and saving habits!

Easter 2015

Hey everyone. It's been a little bit since my last post because nothing overly cool or fun has happened and I haven't been inspired. Today I thought I would take a moment out of the day to wish everyone a Happy Easter and that everyone (who celebrates) had an amazing weekend just like I did!

Honestly, I would have been over the moon with this as an Easter present. I love bunnies and I want another one (I have one currently)

Good Friday

Long weekends are my favourite. Not that they mean much to me because I don't work full time and get them as holidays, but because the people I love get the break they deserve and I can spend time with them. Friday was a lazy day to start. Kieran and I slept in until around 11am, I made breakfast and we watched the Simpsons. Best part of our day was going and watching Fast and Furious 7 (no spoilers here because I would have cried if I read spoilers before I watched it) but I loved it and I did cry. 100% recommend everyone to go and watch this movie! 

Afterwards we went and hung out at one of Kieran's friends houses and it was nice. Nothing fancy, just pizza (for them) and talking. Then I'm pretty sure we came home and went to bed #oldpeople

Easter Saturday

What a great day to go shopping- for everyone else. Bonus: holiday pay for us retail workers. I started work at 8am and worked a few hours. Then came home and watched movies with Kieran (who had only just woken up when I got back). Then I had another shift in the afternoon (split shifts kill my life, but it was a public holiday sooo who would turn down the money???).

Night time, my bestfriend was having an 'Easter' party. Whatever it was, it was fun. I cheated at Kings Cup (fake drinking) and laughed at everyone being drunken messes. 

Fun facts from Saturday night:

1. if you drink anything from a red cup, people will assume it is alcohol (I don't/can't drink anymore and I knew people would question it if they knew, so hey why not make some fun out of it by cheating at a drinking game, FYI I would say I won because I got the best laughs out of it)

2. Don't mess with Dani and her music, she will get angry

3. Apparently matching tracksuits are cool??

4. Kieran's biggest wish when he is drunk and hungry at 1am will be a steak, chips and gravy

5. He will give up on that and ask for Maccas instead

6. He will tell you that you are the best wife for getting him Maccas and paying for it

7. There is nothing better than going home to your own bed and being able to drive home because you haven't consumed any alcohol

Easter Sunday

Ugh. I am not religious. I respect it all and everything, but I don't want to hear about it. Or have it shoved in my face. And that's what Easter seems to be. People bragging about going to church and people going on about God (please see Easter Monday for more about this). I get that to many people it is a religious holiday, but to me it is literally a bunch of days that some people get off work and that other people (aka. me) get paid a lot of extra $$$ to work. Oh and you spend time with family. And most people eat a lot of chocolate (once again, not me). Easter just annoys me. That's all.

Today we went to an Easter lunch with Kieran's family. Hmm, not the most fun thing I have ever done. But hey, it makes the grown ups happy we pretend to care about Easter and spend time with them. It probably wasn't that bad, I was just super tired, hungry and felt sick all day. Night time wasn't much better, we came home to my house and watched a movie and went to bed at 9:30pm. It was a long day.

Before Easter lunch with Kieran and his family

Easter Monday

Another fun day for shopping- while I'm working. Started at 8am again but this time got to work straight until 2pm. It was alright for the first few hours, then it was insane. Why do people go crazy when the shops are shut for a day? I don't understand. Other than work, I was pretty lazy. The weather was awful today and it made me sad and reminded me how sick I feel. Kieran and I took a trip this afternoon to N2 Extreme Gelato and it was amazing (I didn't get a photo because we were both literally too keen to eat it). The night is ending (it's currently 8:46pm) with me searching for the new Grey's Anatomy episode & Teen Mom OG to watch, listening to workout playlists (without actually working out), writing this post and probably about to drink a cup of tea. I feel crappy but I think it's a hormone thing right now.

Thanks for reading about my Easter (if you managed to get to the end). I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend and I will be back with another post soon!

On a side note- it is uni holidays and I am so happy.

Stelle xx

Online Shopping

Let's talk about online shopping shall we? 

How many of you are students and shopaholics like myself? Well just before you go back to being sad about everything you can't buy because you don't have the money, I have something great I need to share with all of you! It's called UNiDAYS. There are basically just a whole bunch of different stores (places like Glue Store, The Iconic, ASOS etc.) that gives you a discount code to use when shopping (ranges from about 10%-25% off). It is literally the best thing ever. All you have to do is verify your student status and then you're free to redeem the codes when shopping. You can sign up here if you're interested!

 I am a sucker for online shopping. Not only do I find it the most convenient thing in the world to do (I don't have to leave my house, I don't have to put on pants, I can literally just grab my laptop and spend as much money as there is in my bank account). I always spend hours online when online shopping though, because I need to make sure I am buying the best bargain (duh).

The other day, for example, I was bored at home and I decided to make a list of all the essential items I was going to need to buy for myself this Winter (I don't really own a lot of winter clothes because I just try to ignore the fact it gets cold and also I was used to just wearing school uniform, so last winter I alternated between basically 2 pairs of pants, 1 jacket, 1 coat and 2 pairs of shoes). I genuinely needed winter clothes. My list consisted of:

- mid rise jeans

- knee high boots

- cream/white jacket

-black coat

- denim jacket

- comfy jumpers

- hooded cardigans

- infinity scarf (red, black or grey)

- beanie

- low white converses

- high top black & white converses

- pleather tights

- handbag

- flanno

A bit of a list but like I mentioned, I don't really own anything warm and last year I wore the same thing constantly or I would freeze. My converses broke recently (after 5 years, bless you my white converses) so that was the starting point for my online shopping experience. 

As I sat at my computer and opened up 10 or so different tabs with shopping sites, I started my shopping adventure. I created carts with the items I needed, compared the prices over different sites and then (so far) settled for making purchases from 4 different websites all because I either:

a) got a good bargain on the items

b) they had free shipping

c) both of the above

I started off on Glue Store because of the 15% student discount and I figured this was going to be the best place to buy my converses. I was happy with the $27 saving because everyone knows that the popular, classic converses never go on sale (and they're the ones that I wanted). Then I ended up scoring an amazing black coat from ASOS for only $45 and a lovely knit cardigan. I then went shopping on the Cotton On website because they always have such good bargains. I ended up buying jeans, a jacket, some shirts and a beanie. I also bought a denim jacket and another cardigan from city beach.

I am pretty happy with everything I bought and now I just can't wait for all of my items to arrive.

Thanks for reading,

Stelle xx

Being an adult is exhausting

I think my title is pretty self-explanatory, being an adult is exhausting. But today for some reason, after I've woken up from a nap on my couch due to the background noise from watching Man vs Wild (before I fell asleep) I think I am going expand on the phrase "being an adult is exhausting".

My mum and sister have left me for a large chunk of Summer to enjoy the usual holiday by the beach. I, of course, was invited but alas the duties of being an adult stood in my way of having a holiday for more than 5 days (where as they get to enjoy 3 full weeks of it). I have been left to carry out all the mundane adult activities that everyone experiences when they grow up and move out of home. I'll give you a little description of everything I find utterly boring to do, yet for some reason seems to take the life out of me each day.

1. Working- probably the most important thing on this list. Because clearly how can one survive without money? Which essentially we all have to work for in some way or another. Working every single day, switching it up between two jobs (and sometimes both jobs in one day) has left me completely exhausted when I get home from the day of working. It sucks, but everyone does it (sort of) so I'll leave this one here...
2.  Grocery Shopping- I used to enjoy grocery shopping for the family. But I've now come to realise that was only because my mum gave me her credit card, told me to buy whatever was necessary and just try not to spend too much money doing so. Now it's a different story. Feeding myself for over two weeks is a lot harder than it sounds. I have a tight budget and can't enjoy all the luxury foods I love so much (mum you give me an easy life when it comes to food and for that I thank you and I am sorry for every time I have ever complained you cooked something for dinner that I didn't like- which brings me to my next point)
3. Cooking- I enjoy cooking. On occasion. When I have energy. I don't know how my mum comes home from work and sometimes the gym most days and cooks dinner. I have discovered this is literally the last thing I want to do when I come home because I am just so tired. And even worse than this is actually thinking of meals that I can cook myself. Some nights I have had to previously meal prep because I had to work the nigh shift and needed to take dinner with me. This ties in largely with the grocery shopping on a budget and not being able to enjoy the steaks and wonderful stir-frys I otherwise love (because umm hello, vegetables and meat are so expensive????) I have taken mum's advice and eaten everything left in the cupboards and freezer first (yes again mum you were right, there is always food in the house)
4. Doing the washing- ugh. So time consuming, it rains every time I need to wash and I always forget I need clean work shirts until an hour before I want to go to bed the night before (and no I don't have a dryer so it makes life so much harder to get my clothes dry). Folding the washing is more irritating than doing it and I have a mountain to still get through (remains of washed clothes from my holidays I still haven't touched)
5. Doing the dishes- Can. not. stand. I have tried to put literally everything I can in he dishwasher and I will wash up the pots and pans when it is absolutely necessary. Which also means I have been using the bare minimum when it comes to cooking because I just don't want to clean up my mess. 
6. Cleaning the house- why oh why do things have to get so dirty? And who has time for housework? Why do I need to vacuum the floor and dust things and clean the bathrooms? Why can't everything just remain clean without any effort. This is the part of being an adult that I despise the most
7. Not wasting money on everything I want because there are actually necessities- But I wanted to go out for dinner and go bowling, but oops I can't because I have to work or I have to save my money for stuff I would rather not pay for (phone bill anyone??)
8. Lonely- This was something I never expected. It doesn't really tie into the list but I think I needed to mention it. Right now it has been really hard for me and I have bee feeling quite lonely. My go to friends are on holidays (my best friend is even out of the country for 3 weeks) and my boyfriend works in the days like me and when I work both days and nights sometimes I don't speak to anyone (that I want to talk to). I drove to my family's holiday destination last night because I genuinely missed talking to my mum and sister. That surprised me above everything. 

I have come to the conclusion that if I were to live by myself full time I would probably spend all my evenings at home so my mum can cook me food (I am so lazy) and then go hang out with either them or my friends because I need people to speak to. Living with my boyfriend with help me with being lonely but not much else (sorry babe you only take the rubbish out without me asking and unpack the dishwasher when I nag). I am a pretty shitty adult but hey, I am still soldering on. Definitely have a new found respect for how much my mother actually does (okay I already new this, but I am appreciating it more and more everyday.)

Thanks for reading,
Stelle xx