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

Christmas Party

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

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

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

The menu for the evening included:

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

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

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

View of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from Fort Denison

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

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

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

Ready for the party, dress from Forever New

Loved dressing up and getting to go out somewhere extremely nice

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

Summer Bucket List

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

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

Favourite place, hopefully get to spend some of Summer here

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

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

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

Weekends

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

Friday 

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

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

Saturday

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

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

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

Sunday 

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

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

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

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

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

Stressed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading!

4 Years

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

All we wanted for our anniversary was:

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

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

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

Kiama Lighthouse

Kiama Blow Hole

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

The padlock we left at the Blow Hole, Kiama

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

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

The Ice-Creamery, Kiama

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

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

Our couple tattoo

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

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

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

Thank you for reading guys!