2009 in Pictures... the final instalment.

Here is the final instalment of my year in pictures. I am not the greatest photographer, or the most dedicated one, so here is as many of the important events that occurred throughout the months following February. We celebrated many birthdays, a couple of big ones and also played tourist and tour guide to friends visiting from overseas and mainland Australia.

We had a weekend in Melbourne to celebrate my sister's 21st Birthday. We went shopping at our favourite cosmetics and clothing stores


We also had an evening at Cirque Du Soliel (no pictures sorry), followed by a day at the Melbourne Zoo with our extended family and a delicious picnic.


We saw all of our favourite animals and loved watching our young cousins having a fabulous time.



The 21st celebrations carried on for well over a week, with a family dinner in which we gorged on a deathly rich chocolate cake (we carefully transported the plaque home from Melbourne!)

A great party followed a few days later

Where there was another fabulous cake made by one of her dear friends.


We had a day out at a Bonorong Park, a local wildlife park with a new friend who was visiting from the United States. We loved the Kangaroos and the Tasmanian Devils are actually kind of cute when they are not fighting!

Tasmanian Devil sleeping in his burrow


They are not the most attractive little animals.


Kangaroos roam freely around the park and visitors are allowed to touch and feed them pellets. There were a few with joeys hiding in their pouches and we were lucky to see this little one hop out to stretch it's legs and then get back inside it's Mum's cosy pouch.


"Hey there".

2009 in Pictures

In the next week or so I will be giving a quick wrap up of the year that has been 2009. Tonight I will start with a small pictorial of the wonderful events that I have attended throughout the year.

January and February were filled with celebrations of friends weddings, summer festivals, the beach and a little stint in New Zealand where I stayed with my newlywed friends and met the lovely Scribbles.


Delicious Croquembouches which was devoured at my dear friends wedding.


My Bestie E and I at the Soundscape Festival where we saw among others, Bomba and Pnau.



Me on the Harbour in Auckland after a little trip over to Waiheke Island







A trip to Bruny Island with my Friend N, where we soaked up the on the beach where Captain Cook landed and grazed on a picnic.


My sister and I in Launceston at MS Fest, another Tasmanian music festival. Favourtie acts included Josh Pyke, The Butterfly Effect, The Living End and The Presets!


I was there with all of My People- ba boom ching!

Whoa that was only the first two months of the year! The rest is yet to come! Keep your eyes peeled for the happenings of the rest of 2009 to be posted in the next couple of days!

Fried Brain Anyone?

Just a quick post to apologise for my recent absence from the blogosphere over the past month or so, but ever since I submitted my thesis my brain has been completely drained of any urges to write, research and record (funny that!).

Since Uni has finished I have been spending the most part of my time working, catching up with friends and sleeping. Work hasn't slowed down since we opened; it seems everyone is on to their Christmas shopping which is rather exciting and fun to be involved with. I have been enjoying my new found free-time for not doing much! I have had a couple of days of running around seeing friends, going to appointments and doing bits and pieces, but for the most part, I have been mooching around the house, reading and enjoying long afternoon naps.

Over the next few days I am hoping to have a few posts up which will fill you in on whats been going on in this life of mine, and I promise that the new year will see a more disciplined and regular blogger!

I hope that you all have a lovely, sun filled weekend!

x

Seven

I have been nominated by the fabulous MissB to share seven random facts about myself. So without further ado, here are seven little bits and pieces about Moi.

1. I have a stationary fetish- always have, always will, and that's why I love my job.

2. I unashamedly love Oprah, much to my Mother's amusement and embarrassment.

3. I am asking my face book friends to tell me a random fact about myself and I am finding their responses to be slightly embarrassing...eg. Your gorgeous and you don't know it- ahem. Moving on...

4. This summer, I have so far arranged to go to two big music festivals; the Big Day Out in Melbourne and Falls Festival in Marion Bay Tasmania. I can't wait. I love a good festival. I am also hoping to get to MS Fest in Launceston; finances and time permitting!

5. I am hopefully going to go back to uni next year to complete my Masters degree in Journalism, Media and Communications. Even though this year was a massive drag, I am still fairly interested in studying. The prospect of more qualifications is attractive and also going back for more study puts off the inevitable career decision, which I am still umming and ahhing over.

6. I am a perfectionist most of the time and very anal about things being "just right". This can be a good thing, and also bad as I tend to beat myself up about things which are sometimes not very important in the scheme of things.

7. I have an addiction to chocolate coated raspberry lollies. They got me through writing my thesis.

There you go, seven random bits and bobs about me! Now it's time to tag seven lovelies whom I love to read... Holly, Scribbles (even though MissB has already nabbed her, but she is one of my faves too), Sue my lovely Canadian lady, Ali, Anna, PinkAppleCore, Phil. Feel free to participate if you have the time and inclination, otherwise take my tagging you as a big cyber hug!

x

Words to live by

I stumbled upon this simple little phrase the other day and thought it was a nice little reminder of how to live when things get a little tricky, busy and overwhelming.

"Just be present, it's that easy."

Have a great day,

x

What a relief!

So I announced last week that I would be starting this week with a change. Well it's happened and it went so much better than I had expected.

For the last two and a half years I have worked in a very busy grocers. Last Thursday I made the decision that it was time to resign from my position there. For a long time I have been thinking about this and it was important for me to have a back up income when I made this decision. Having just taken on my second part time job at Smiggle a couple of weeks ago made doing this much easier. I had thought that for the summer that I would be able to balance two jobs, but ultimately this would have been far more difficult than I initially thought.

For the most part I have had an enjoyable time working there. I have learnt what it is to earn my money through sheer hard work. I have met some really interesting characters. I have made some good friends, and an enemy here and there. I have learnt how to deal with a number of differing personalities and needs, to ensure that at the end of the day everyone is left pleased. I have learnt of the very tight net work of successful Tasmanians. But in the past couple of months, it hasn't been enjoyable going to work and I had grown tired of the politics of the business and the disorganisation of it too.

So last week, after a little disagreement with one of the bosses, I decided that it was time to move on. Having spoken to a couple of friends they had all confirmed my thoughts, telling me "A, you should never feel worried about going to work, your new boss at Smiggle is approachable just the way any boss should be, not like your boss at the grocer who you are scared to approach." Over the weekend I was very restless and nervous about the reaction I would receive from my boss, but yesterday when I went to hand in my resignation I was met with well wishes for my new job and future, told of how much of an asset I had been, instantly invited to the Christmas party, how professional I had always been and that they always knew I would be wanting to achieve more. I was so flattered with the nice comments and somewhat shocked too as in all my time working there, I think I had only been given a compliment a couple of times! I won't miss much about the place, only my friends and I definitely won't miss my 5am starts on Mondays!

I honestly can say I love my new job, I look forward to going there each time I am rostered on, I feel challenged and I feel appreciated. I feel like I have had a massive weight lifted off my shoulders and I am so excited to be moving forward doing something that I really enjoy.

And we will raise our glasses to toast

This time in two weeks I will have handed my completed thesis in and I will hopefully be, and have been celebrating with friends and family. To be accurate, my thesis is due in about 13 days, on the 23rd of October. I expect that I will have it finished in about 10 days as it may take a couple of days for it to be printed- I need to have four copies and at the moment it will be 50+ pages! To have it ready for submission early would be wonderful and would be a load lifted off these very sore and tense shoulders of mine.

I am currently working through my first draft and the notes of my supervisor, making changes, re-writing and working to have a full and complete draft by Wednesday. That will leave me another 6-7days to finish it off. I am slowly ticking things off my "to finish" list. It's a nice feeling to be making some progress.

Yesterday I had my first day off in almost two weeks. I had a meeting with my supervisor, made some progress with my work, did some groceries for Mum and had a big nap in the afternoon sun. I have been fighting a cold this week and needed to catch up on some rest as well. I was also extremely tired as my sister and I had stayed up until midnight on Thursday to buy tickets to the Melbourne Big Day Out. We got through to entering our details and submitting our credit card numbers and then we were told that we would receive a confirmation email telling us whether our order had been successful or not. I couldn't wait up so went to bed and found out in the morning that our two tickets were on their way to us! I am very excited about next years show, the last Big Day Out I went to was in 2007, following a long term relationship break-up which hung like a big black cloud over my head the whole day. Next year's is going to be really fantastic, we are hoping to stay in St Kilda and have a couple of days hanging out and catching up with Melbourne friends.

I returned to work today and it was super busy again. It seems our new Smiggle store is just getting busier and busier as the days go by which is a great thing apart from our depleting stock levels which are making the shelves look a little bit sad! It is really fantastic to be back working somewhere that I love, selling something that I love and just being in the city. This evening it looked like I had missed out on a stunning day, but I have a feeling that there will be many more to come in the next few months.

The coming week has me working 5 shifts between my two jobs, with two full days off to do thesis, and two half days as well. I am going to be making a bit of a change in my life at the beginning of the week which I will announce to you all once I have done so. I am pleased with the progression that I will be taking, but at the moment, that is all I can really say! Ohhh secrets!

How has your week been? Any big life changes or progressions? I had best get back to my work, I hope that you all have a beautiful weekend, where ever you may be in this big wonderful world.

x

Hello Lovelies,

Sorry for being a terribly slack blogger of late, things have been so hectic and nearly all of my time has been eaten up with my thesis and work. I feel terrible for letting my lovely blog fall off the wagon, my journal is also suffering terribly which makes me feel a bit sad because I had promised myself that this year I would be a dedicated journaller and blogger. My hopes are that after I submit my thesis in two weeks time that I will be back on the wagon and writing and thinking a lot more!

For those you who do not follow me on Twitter, here is a brief re-cap of what has happened over the past couple of weeks:

- I attended a friends house party where we were all rather terrible with our alcohol consumption, I was terribly sick for quiet a few days afterwards. I am slightly ashamed to admit this, but am doing so as a reminder to myself and everyone else that it really isn't cool to have a massive binge! My next drinking session will be more controlled!

- Almost two weeks ago I got a phone call from Smiggle asking me to go to Melbourne the next day to do two days worth of training! I was so excited to receive this call and consequently ran around the house wrapped only in my bath towel jumping for joy! The funny part is that it was 8.30am and we live two houses away from a primary school so parents taking their children to school probably saw me leaping around in the front room half naked- nice one! Anyway I headed off to Melbourne on the Thursday morning and returned on the Friday evening. I got put up in a hotel just near the shopping centre where I was trained. I got to see my Aunt for dinner who lives in a neighbouring suburb and also one of my Uncles which was really nice! I bought myself a couple of treats while I was over there too. I had been eyeing off a couple of Mimco bags online and ended up purchasing this one, it was a good sale and it's beautiful in real life. I love Mimco products, they are all stunning. I also got myself a few goodies from Kit , I especially love their nail polishes. I met up with one of my friends who had been doing some work in Melbourne at the airport as we were on the same flight home, we had a catch up and glass of bubbly before our flight left. It was a terrible flight home, so bumpy. I also got to meet my new Smiggle manager at the airport which was nice! During my time in Melbourne I realised how lucky I am living back at home. I do not miss the crazy traffic and the sprawl of the city, I do miss a couple of things like the variety of shops and cafes and my friends and family, but my heart is here for the time being and I am so lucky to live in this little paradise.

- I had a date with the boy I mentioned in my previous post. We had lunch at the beach. It was nice to catch up with him but I pretty much knew from the outset that it wouldn't go any further than that. Lovely guy, but not for me.

- A few friends have had birthday celebrations in the last few weeks so it has been good to catch up with everyone as I know the next couple of weeks are going to be spent working and thesising which means that I am going to be a hermit!

- Smiggle opened last Thursday. It was a hectic week leading up to the opening, with a two day set-up of the store and then a big opening weekend. I had a heap of fun and it is great to be back working with something that I really like and doing something that I actually enjoy too! I am just doing one day a week at the grocer's now which suits me just fine as I didn't know that Smiggle would be needing me so much!

- Thesis is due in just over two weeks. I had aimed to have a full draft completed two weeks ago but that didn't happen. I am hoping that tonight I can send it off to my supervisor to have a look at before we meet up again on Friday. There are parts of it that I am really happy with and then there are a couple of parts that I am really unhappy with! I have found that since I have been working more that the time I have been spending on my thesis has been far more productive than I had been before which is good.

On that note, I must be off, just thought that I would write a quick little update and I promise that once uni is finished for the year that I will be that dedicated blogger that I had anticipated I would be!

I hope that you are all well!

The Sun is Shining

I am so sorry it's been a little while since my last post, I was feeling fairly drained after dumping all that out; nothing like an emotional purge! I am very glad that I did it though, I have been feeling great and very positive ever since! I feel much better now though. It has been a busy few weeks, my parents were away for a good 3 weeks in Bali (lucky them while we endured a horrible burst of winter) so I have been a busy house wife and Mumma to our assorted animals, student and check-out-chick.

Anyway, I have some things to share with you that are making me feel somewhat excited!

- In 6 weeks time I will be handing my thesis in. I am feeling pretty happy with the way it is going, and can't wait for it to be finished. I have a a busy month and a half to go though! I have decided to reward myself with a sky-dive once I have completed everything. I think I will be needing a bit rush of adrenalin by then and I really want to see our beatuiful city from a birds-eye-view.

- It has been stellar weather here for the last couple of days. After 3 weeks of rain, cold and horrible wind, it's a very welcome change! I have had a couple of great walks out in the sun and this makes me feel so great.

- There is a new interest in my life. Well he is rather interested in me and proving to be quiet sweet. We are yet to catch up in person though. We have known each other since we were about 14 but haven't seen each other in years. Anyway we will see how things pan out. I feel very flattered by his sweet messages that he keeps sending me though.

- I have a really busy social month this September filled with Birthday party's every weekend! I can't wait to spend some time celebrating with my wonderful friends!

- My Mum just came into my room while I was singing because she thought the sounds I was making were our cat being awfully loud. No, it was my singing. I had to laugh, because I know that my singing prowess isn't all that it's made up to be, I may feel like Beyonce but I certainly am not her!

- Today I found out that I have a new job! I used to work for Smiggle when I was living in Melbourne and they are opening their first store down here at the beginning of October. I can't wait to be selling something I love and believe in again! I will keep my job at the grocer's for the summer holidays just to earn some extra money, but I am very excited about the potential career paths that can be found within Smiggle.

- I love the new Bag Raider's song Shooting Stars. It is a great tune to listen to when exercising and getting ready for a night out on the town. I LOVE it! It gets me going! Speaking of music love, I have just re-discovered my love of The John Butler Trio, Jack Johnson (mind you he is never far from my heart) and the Presets.

- I have been working on another couple of posts, but due to my thesis occupying most of my time it may be sometime before you see them. The good part is, my creative juices are flowing and that makes me happy! I am looking forward to write more often once uni is finished up for this year!

How are all of you going? Have a fantastic weekend!

Two years late

Last night I had an incredibly vivid and intense dream which left me awake for what felt like hours. I tossed and turned and had so much difficulty shaking the memory of the dream. I woke up feeling exhausted and drained and I still do. The dream was horrible, but was also good as it made me realise that it is time to forgive, let-go, move forward, embrace and reflect on all the positive things that have happened and continue to happen since the fateful day that triggered of my consciousness last night. It was like a little prompt letting me know that it is time to tell the evil little monster that has sat on my shoulder for over two years to eff-off.

After reading this post of Bambola’s last month I did think that it was time that I do something similar. Mind you, I put off addressing my feelings, as I have done for over two years. I have let them burden my life and I am quiet frankly sick of it, I have wasted enough time thinking about it and so today I let go and forget. So here is the letter that I would send today, and should have sent then instead of my thoughtful and considerate response that I wrote because everything had been manipulated so much so that I felt sorry for the person. The letter is basically what I had said in my dream last night.

I would never waste my breathe now to say sorry to you for what happened, what I did for you to live the life you wanted, to live the life we both apparently wanted together. I do not feel sorry for you about your family’s dysfunctional situation because it is clear that you were using that as a scapegoat for your own selfishness and inability to think about anyone else’s lives apart from your own. Quiet frankly I was glad to rid my life of your family, the stress that your mother placed on me and you, and their complications. My family look normal in comparison and you were rather lucky that they embraced you the way they did. You took away their daughter and sister for almost three years and they loved you, and accepted you, and thought you were genuine, and admired your determination and strength of character. You did a good job fooling them and me!

When we met, I admired so many of your qualities; your drive and determination, your work ethic, your personality and “genuine” interest in people. There were a few things I didn’t admire but I never bought them up because I felt all of your positives outweighed those negatives…how wrong I was. I should never have let you compromise my own beliefs and values. I am disgusted by your greed, selfishness and dishonesty. I am disgusted by the little value and respect that you showed me, our friends and your family by just leaving, no explanation; no word for 2 weeks. You didn’t care that everyone was worried about you. You just wanted your big salary package, and the easy way out. You are a disgrace of a man, if that’s what we are calling you.

For so long I have tried to rid my life of you, I threw out everything I had of you, tore up your words and tried to erase your face from my mind, but you have continued to haunt my dreams and now it is time for you to leave. I wasted opportunities because of you, when we were together and when we had split. You didn’t upset me so much, but you damaged my self-esteem I know I should have made the first move to end things when our life became dominated by what you wanted, with no compromises for my wants or needs. I was unhappy and I know that I will never let myself be pushed into that position again. Never again will I be with someone who cannot treat me as an equal, give me the respect, trust and honesty that I deserve. You are a liar and a theif, you lied to me and everyone else and you stole part of my self-worth.

I was angry for a very long time and I suppose that is now evident within this letter, however as much as I don't want to boost your already huge ego, I would rather deflate it a little so you know that you are all that I can't. There are a couple of things that I have to thank you for. For a long time, you leaving made me feel like you had stuffed up my life. In actual fact you didn’t stuff my life up. My life is what I am meant to be living now and I love it. I love it so much more than I loved it when I was with you, and I actually have started to love myself now too. I am glad that I am back to being who I am meant to be. I don’t think I changed when we were “us”, but I do think I let a little bit of me linger in the shadows. I will never compromise myself for the sake of another person, so thanks for teaching me that lesson. Thanks for giving me the chance to return to my home, I hated pretty much everything about where we lived and it was all because of you and your need to buy that shitty little unit. I love being with my friends, my family, being able to embrace my own desires, travel where I want to, do what I want and be myself. I know that everyone who is in my life now has my best interests at heart and loves me and accepts me for who I am. Also, probably the one thing that I really need to thank you for is telling me to go home, so that I could be with my Dad. It was like you knew what the future held for him and my family, and I thank you for that. I needed to be here when Dad was sick. He is the most important man in my life now and I will always measure any man that comes into my life against my Dad and the man that he is.

I feel exhausted now. I probably seem like a really angry person right about now, its just I have never talked about how I feel, I never wanted to burden anyone with anything emotional like that. I feel a lot better now. I know now that I will never let something so stupid affect me in such a way. I don't want to carry something like that around with me for the rest of the life.

Thank you for reading. I hope that you are all having a fantastic week.

Just what I wished for

After a week of grey, rainy, wintery days we have been blessed with an unseasonally sunny, clear day of 18 degrees! Having been cooped up inside all week and suffering from cabin fever, I have spent a good few hours outside enjoying the warmth and sun. This is how I have spent my beautiful saturday...

My sister and I made beautiful fruit salad for our lunch which we ate from our giant pink teacups.

We sat outside and sunned our legs on the picnic table.

Spring blossoms have started to bloom on our fruit trees,

And spring bulbs are popping up around the garden.

I took a walk around the bay,

which is watched over by my mountain, Mount Wellington. I could see cars driving up to the pinnacle and I imagined the stunning views of our little city.

The rest of the afternoon will be spent relaxing, reading and spending time with my family. This evening I am going to get glammed up and head out for a girls night. We will drink Champagne and cocktails, gossip and giggle at some of our lovely waterfront bars.

A week of realisations, plotting and getting things done.

This week I have:

- Finally admitted to myself that I need to get over my lazy-ways (in all aspects of my life)! I have to stop thinking and start doing. I am the queen of procrastination and with 10 weeks until my thesis is due I cannot afford to waste my time! If I want to get the result I have set out to achieve, I really need to knuckle down and work, work, work. Having said that, I have had encouraging comments from my supervisor and some good tips on how to approach my thesis which I am going to apply to the work I have already done. I think that having been unwell a few weeks ago I have found it hard to get back into my routine and I am going to work really hard this coming week on getting back into that. I know when I am busier that I achieve so much more, so this week I am going to work to my lists, tick things off and not sit around and waste time!

- Had my hair done. My roots were getting very long and I was not digging the Shakira look anymore! I now have lovely golden locks :)

- Caught up with my best friend and her husband who had been on holidays for five weeks and loved hearing their travel tales. I now have a couple of more destinations that I would like to visit thanks to their recommendations!

- Had a couple of girls-nights in. Winter time is perfect for these types of evenings; a few nibblies and a good movie, chit-chat and keeping toasty.

- Been to the movies with my Sister and Mum to see My Sisters Keeper. I was a bit let down by it actually, it wasn't as good as the book for sure, and Cameron Diaz does not cut it as a Mum, she is too funny for serious roles. If you are wanting to see it, my recommendation is to wait for it to come out on DVD.

- Cooked dinner three times for my family. Instead of paying board, I have an agreement with my parents where I cook a few times a week and provide the food myself. This week I cooked three lovely healthy meals and I stayed under budget when shopping for the ingredients! I allocate a certain amount of money for each meal so I was very pleased to have change left over after every shop!

- Donated money to an orphanage in Africa where one of my old high school friends is volunteering. She called for donations when it was planned that August 8th would be the birthday for all the children who lived there as none of them have records of their birth-dates. They were going to throw a birthday party and give all the children a present to celebrate. I can't wait to hear about how it went and see her photos!

How was your week? What did you learn, plot and do?

x

10 Things About Moi!

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past couple of weeks. I have been rather busy getting back into my thesis which has left me a little unispired and distracted. To get myself back into this I have decided that a "fluffy" post is in order. As I am fairly new to all of this, I thought I would let you in on 10 snippets of information about yours truly.

1. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. My career choice changes almost daily!

2. I want to go skydiving in every continent that I visit. I first went skydiving in Nelson, New Zealand and it was the most invigorating and liberating experience that I have ever had and the biggest rush I have ever felt. Being a massive wuss when it comes to these type of activities, it opened me up to being more adventurous and to what I am capable of letting myself do. I must clarify that I did a tandem jump with an instructor their to pull the cord and control everything, I don't know if I will ever want to learn to do a jump solo, we will have to wait and see. I am hanging out to do a skydive over our home town, I think the views would be stunning.

Thats me and my grotty feet!

3. My favourite colour is pink and I doubt I will ever grow out of this. I have always loved pink and probably embrace it even more now than when I was a little girl as my Mum was a bit of a feminist and dressed my sister and I in bright and bold primary colours. I love the feminity of the colour.

4. Travel makes my heart sing. I thrive when I have travel plans in the works, when I don't have plans, my life and motivations come to a great big halt.

5. I have a slight fascination with the celebrity world, hence why my thesis is centred around this. Many think that the topic is airy-fairy, but I heavily contest this and would happily debate my case.

6. My dreams include cherry blossoms in Stanely Park in Vancouver, a handsome man and a boutque of pink peony roses.

Image by Aunt Owwee

7. I lived in Vancouver for a year when I was 19 and I would move back there in a heart beat.

8. I have a shockingly sweet tooth. Cupcakes, candy, cake, cookies, chocolate and fresh fruit ( you have to have some balance!) all suck me in!

9. Here is one piece of info that is sure to give you the giggles. I have freckle on my bottom. I have had it ever since I was a baby. My Mum once tried to pick it off once when she was changing my nappy. Who knows how I got a freckle there! I must have loved laying on my tummy in the sun!

10. Whenever I think about fruit and vegetables, I think of them according to the numerical code that we use for them at work. For example, strawberries are number 87, when I was at the supermarket today and the girl scanned my strawberries, I thought to myself "87".

Image by ^riza^

Anxiety; a help or a hinderance?

Image- Courtesy of Dave-F

Yesterday I had a meeting with my thesis supervisor to chat about my progress and the direction my project is taking. I am completing my honours year and so that entails two course-work units which I did last semester, and a thesis which I am to complete this semester. So far, word count-wise I am a third of the way there which is some consolation because I have aimed to work to a fairly rigid schedule. As our conversation progressed, my supervisor kindly told me that I look tired- how kind! I am still recovering from my cold/flu that I had last week and feel rather exhausted this week and I knew yesterday that I looked like crap so to be told that was just the compliment I was looking for! Ahem...

I went on to express my desire to keep moving forward in a brisk fashion and my intentions to complete the first draft at least a month before the due date so that I have at least four weeks to re-work and edit. I did mention that the looming deadline was featuring prominently in my thoughts and that I wanted to avoid becoming overly stressed about it. I was somewhat surprised when my supervisor told me that a bit of anxiety is good for me and my project- Excuse me?! This piece of advice came as somewhat of a shock!

Having given a bit of thought to my supervisors advice since recovering from my shock. I can see what he means. A little bit of anxiety can help keep the project on track, progressing and help with maintaining a focus. Anxiety and stress become a problem when it is more than a niggle in the back of your mind and overcomes everything you do. From my experience, when you have reached this level of anxiety and stress it can be fairly unpleasant. At the moment, my anxiety is a mere niggle and thats how I would like it to stay!

While I know that both feelings are sometimes unavoidable, I do try to avoid them at all costs. When there is a spanner thrown into the works, maintaining this sort of order and routine can be a challenge. Since I have been unwell all schedules and routines have been disrupted and I suppose this hasn't helped my anxiety. I have huge plans for the coming week to get back on top of my work and hopefully I will be back on track by Friday; that is if everything falls into place.

So how do I try to avoid anxiety and stress? I try to work to my schedule and complete my tasks with enough time so that I can re-work and have a think about improvements and alterations. I try to establish a routine so that each day I complete a certain amount of work. I reward myself with breaks once I have completed a days work. I move onto another task if I hit a wall with my current focus. I like to break my day up so that I can clear my mind for half an hour or so and get some fresh air and re-gather my thoughts to increase my productivity. I like to plan everything out so I know what I need to complete and by when.

Everyone works differently, and I used to brag about how I work better under pressure, but at this particular time, I don't think I am willing to chance my project, or my health for that matter with this approach. I am going to try to avoid anxiety and stress at all costs! Everyone also has different ways of dealing with, or avoiding stress and anxiety so please share your ways of dealing with these two feelings in the comments section!

Thank you, and I hope that you are all enjoying a weekend that is as stress and anxiety-free as possible.

Anywhere but here...

For the past few days I have been yearning to be somewhere warm and tropical, where the air is thick and heavy and scented with the intoxicating perfume of beautiful frangipanis. Where you subsist on fresh tropical fruit, delicious satays, and cool hibiscus iced-teas. Where the locals speak an intricate and beautiful language, and gamlan music fills the air. Where the markets bustle with tourists trying to find the best bargain, and locals gather their daily fresh produce.

A couple of things have triggered this desperation for warmth in me. Firstly, I have cold which reminds me of the horrible cold that I had for half of our wonderful family holiday to Bali last year. We have had an absolutely bitter winter which has been somewhat depressing and tiring, but the past few days have started off nice and sunny, and the filtered morning light is reminiscent of a cool summers day. I have spent my time in my bedroom sitting on my little fan heater trying to warm my cold bones and write my thesis, somewhat simulating that tropical heat that I experienced last year.

I also have friends holidaying in various parts of Asia at the moment and tales of their travels fill me with envy, but also reignite my thirst for travel and adventure. My sister and I are planning on embarking on a world-wide odyssey around this time next year once I have finished my Master's course. It seems like such a long time away! For the past couple of years I have been rather lucky to have holidayed in New Zealand twice, Bali once and Melbourne a handful of times, and so to have to wait a year for my next big holiday is slightly painful as I have almost become accustomed to travelling every six months! The one thing I do know is that it will be worth the wait and who knows, we may find ourselves finishing up our trip back on the beach at Jimbaran Bay doing this:


If you could be anywhere but your current destination, where would you find yourself?

What a Wonderful Week

This Week I Have...


* Eaten lots of delicious cupcakes and have been so excited when doing so!
* Turned a year older and I now fit a new age bracket on survey forms...
* Shopped for private health insurance
* Spent the last couple of days on the comfy couch trying to ward this cold off


* Spent time with family and friends
* Overloaded on vitamin c
* Drunk warm purple juice out of purple a mug


* Eaten breakfast at my favourite cafe in ages and didn't have my "usual"; variety is the spice of life
* Written in my journal for the first time in ages and it felt great to get my thoughts all out
* Day dreamed about warmer weather


* Been surprised by a "little blue box"
* Been reminded of how precious life is, and how cruel it can be
* Felt incredibly helpless as my sister has endured horrendous grief
* Not done enough uni work, but have done a lot of "thought collecting"

How has your week been? What have been some your highlights?

Have an absolutely wonderful weekend

xoxo

- Excuse the shocking photos, next week I will make sure I rely on my camera, rather than my i-phone!

What a treat!

It’s no secret that I am a bit of a sweet tooth so you can only begin to imagine the excitement that I felt today!

This morning I went into the city to do a couple of errands. As I was walking down the street I passed a few girls who were carrying small white boxes with what appeared to be pictures of cupcakes on the side. I didn’t have enough of a chance to have a great look at these boxes I was positive that I had seen shapes resembling cupcakes! A month or so ago, one of my friends had told me that she had seen an advertisement in the employment section of the newspaper looking for staff for an new cupcake shop and so with that in the back of my mind I set out to see if I could find this elusive cupcake shop. My eyes had not fooled me and I didn’t get very far until I stumbled upon suspected shop. Cutie Cups is the first cupcake shop in our little city, and as it happens, today was their opening day!

The shop, which is situated in our mall is small and is set up more like a walk-in bar with a little tiled area in front of the glass display cabinet which houses the little delights! The walls are candy striped purple and green, too cute! You can buy mini cupcakes or regular sized ones. I decided that I had to get some; a day-early birthday treat to myself you could say!

I chose six mini cupcakes to share with my sister; the Raspberry Cream, Red Velvet, Vanilla, Peppermint Swirl, Jaffa and Cookies & Cream.


Red Velvet- I had never tried a Red Velvet before and having read about them before and their apparent delightfulness I can't really say that there was a "wow" factor to it. Mind you, we cut our cupcakes in half and so I only really had a morsel to try and the frosting was so sweet I couldn't really taste the cake. Maybe I will give it a second tasting.

Raspberry Cream- This one was definitely one of our agreed favourites! A lovely berry flavour which worked really well with the chocolate cake. Delish! The little butterfly candy topping the frosting was cute and tasty too!

Peppermint Swirl- Another goody, I love the peppermint chocolate combination! The icing was a lovely soft green and topped with a chocolate lace sliver.

Jaffa- My sister's favourite! When she popped her half in her mouth it looked like a small explosion was happening inside! It was very tasty, but the orange cream was a little bit too sweet for me, but still very yummy.

Vanilla- I didn't rate this one. Visually it was cute, with a tiny teddy cookie stuck in the vanilla frosting but it was way too sweet for me and didn't really have a distinct vanilla flavour to it. However, we must keep in mind that I am more of a chocolate girl anyway.

Cookies and Cream- Just like the vanilla but with Oreo crumbs on top which you couldn't really taste. It would have been awesome if there were Oreo crumbs through the frosting. I was a bit disappointed with this cupcake as it was described in the brochure as a "Chocolate base with Oreo infused butter cream" but in fact it was a vanilla base with no infusion happening. This the only real disappointment because the cake really didn't match up to the description...

Overall Rating:
I will definitely go back because there are a couple of flavours that I would like to try that were not available today, specifically the Coconut Passion and Honeycomb. The cakes were a bit dry but that has been my general experience with "Australian" cupcakes. These were the best that I have had so far in Australia though. I have also tried the ones from Little Cupcakes in Melbourne which didn't really go down to well. Of course, any cupcake I try will always be hard to match up against the best ones that I have ever had from Cupcakes by Heather & Lori in Vancouver (my favourite flavours there were the Caramella and Denman, my mouth waters just thinking about them!).

Cupcakes definitely have a special place in my heart and are one of my favourite things to share on special occasions such as birthdays!

What is your favourite cupcake flavour? Do you have a perfect cupcake recipe?

Hello, Welcome to My Wonderland.

I first discovered the blogosphere probably a year ago and have been an avid reader of various blogs ever since. For the past few months I have been thinking about starting a blog and after a few words of encouragement from a couple of bloggy-types I have decided to bite the bullet and create my own. I suppose the main reason for my hesitance in taking this next step has been my ability to write entertaining, thoughtful, clever and interesting posts; I ultimately would love this blog to be different, unique and enjoyable for me and my readers.

So why have I decided to blog? I am a media student and have studied the media and a bit of journalism for almost the last four years. My main areas of interest are the media and the changes that have been occurring within the sphere over the last decade; the introduction of new media in particularly; this online “world” never ceases to amaze me and I find the blogosphere incredibly amazing. I feel that if I want to continue on with my research and future work within the industry, then I need to be fully emerged within it. I also want to work on my writing; I have always loved to write and I want to share that again. I want to share my ideas, my stories, and my passions, and also learn about yours.

What can you expect to see in this blog? A little about me; a little about society; a little current affairs; the media and news; a little commentary on this extraordinary blogosphere; and a little about my secret pleasures- travel, food, wine & fashion. I think that is a nice little mix to start off with, and maybe down the track this little space of my own will progress into something different.

Welcome, please enjoy!