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!