Weekend Away, colder weather & puppies!

Monday 3rd April: 

Outfit of the night for a cute dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Tuesday 4th April:

I love waking up in crisp, white sheets (especially with an ocean view)

Saturday 8th April:

Went and checked out the new Eat Street Markets in Hamilton, Brisbane City.

much love, 

XO

Whenever I have these extravagant thoughts for my future (or whatever) I need to process them immediately to determine whether or not they will remain a fantasy or if I can turn them into reality. 

To do so, I need to completely remove myself from my comfortable surroundings. This meant, a weekend away to process. I spent the weekend relaxing, taking walks along the rocky beaches and drinking cocktails in the bath... It was exactly the situation I needed to place myself into. It's a spot I usually go to, about 4 hours north of where I live, to just remove myself from my surroundings without having much strenuous travel.


I've always needed to know my next five years, or at least think I did. Having some kind of plan that I can stick to puts my mind at ease. Since 2017 is the end of my last 5 year plan, I thought it was time to assess and make a new one. And since this is my online diary, I wanted to document it to see how closely I follow it.

I'm supposed to graduate in November 2018 but I've (semi) decided that I want to drag that out for another year. I still haven't found who I am as a person yet, and don't want to start teaching at the beginning of 2019 being the ripe age of 21!! Instead of doing four subjects a semester, I will only do two and that way, I'll take two years to complete one years worth of work. That means I will graduate being 22, and have had the freedom to do more travel/work over the next two years. Ideally, I would like to move universities (to somewhere more credible) but the likelihood of that is quite slim.

Career wise, I still have the passion for teaching and am excited to finally be in the field. I would, however, love to work over in London. That's something I mentioned in a post recently and over the weekend decided that it's definitely something I will do. Ideally, I will go over on a student exchange through my university within the next year to suss out if I could live there. Since I have a bunch of family and friends in the area, I know I'll be looked after :)) So, toward the end of 2019, I should be moving overseas!!

My current living arrangements are not my favourite. While I love living where I am, for the price I paid it's just not ideal. I live quite far from university, but if I moved closer would be further from work. So, what I think I'm going to do is change up where I'm living to cut costs. This hopefully means that I'll be able to save a bunch for where my life takes me.

It's a lot more detailed on paper, but probably nothing that you guys would care to read.

Total side note, but also over the weekend I made the decision to just bite the bullet and buy myself a new laptop... That's another decision I don't make lightly. I tend to grow attached to my material objects and never want to get rid of them, however my old laptop just didn't have the storage or capacity to keep up with the amount of things I had to do. It's difficult because it was such a compact and light laptop, but because of that it just couldn't keep up. It's almost a downgrade, because I went back a generation in laptops -- but that's because the one I wanted is from the 2016 release. I went from the 12" Macbook (in Space Grey) to the 15" Macbook Pro. I now have way more storage, a better keyboard and Retina display!! Yay!!

much love, 
XO

March was eventful, to say the least. I flew far too much!! Went to two Adele concerts in two different countries!! And occasionally went to uni...

Tuesday 28th March:

The month of March has been filled with multiple airports around the world and loads of time in the sky. In total, I think I've spent about 36 hours in the air this month. So, that's approximately 45-50 hours in airports/places. Sign... (what a first world problem). I started in Brisbane, Australia and a few days into the month flew to Seattle, USA after transiting through Vancouver, Canada (that's three countries in the first week of March). Then flying home, a week later, added a lot more flight time and more time in airports.

I spent just over a week at home, only to book a quick weekend trip to Auckland, New Zealand to end the month. I'm pre-writing this post, and am on my flight from Auckland to Brisbane as I write this blogpost. It's currently 11.40am Auckland time (8.41am Brisbane time). My flight left Auckland at 9.30am and I'll be landing at 10am local time. Last night I was at the Adele concert!!! I got back to the hotel at midnight, and had to leave at 6am this morning to get to the airport... #exhausted #totallyworthit 

People watching is one my favourite things. Not doing it in a judgemental way, but merely as an interest in society and the people who frequent airports. I find it so interesting to see how much luggage people try and squeeze into carry-on, the people who think those ridiculous neck pillows are actually a good idea, or the parents with 5 kids who are on their first long-haul holiday. Meanwhile, I sit back with my small pack, leggings & hoodie, sipping a glass of red wine -  no matter the time of day. 

I don't remember if I've ever spoken about it before, but I'm actually a horrible traveller. There's nothing specific that I'm afraid of or nervous about, I just suck at travelling. I'm so bad at time management and I'm either super early to the airport or turn up just before my fate is called for boarding. I don't mind turning up to an international airport too early, obviously I love some retail therapy!! It's when I turn up late and have to clear customs, security and find my gate that I hate. 

I've already got a few other trips planned for this year; like a London/Europe short trip (maybe two) and possibly a trip to the US.

Total plug for next Thursday's post... but there will be a March vlog uploaded :))

much love, 

XO

How is it (soon to be) April already?! These past 3 months have flown by!!! I spent a lot of this month either in the sky or in a variety of climates so there are a few items in some of the subheadings below that got me through the month!! If I can find hyperlinks, I will put them as the product title :))

Beauty:

Hands down, the Too Faced Hangover Primer!!! This helped me after many long flights to feel refreshed and awake. Even if I was only going to put on a powder, I use this to conceal my pores.

The Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer has always been a holy grail item for me and, like above, was a great way to feel refreshed after a flight. It also helped to look more awake when going to classes early in the morning, after spending the night before cramming on assignments or readings.

I feel like the trend here is, things that saved me from looking crap after a long flight but this product also did just that! The Anatasia Brow Wiz is another of my holy grail products that I started loving a few years ago but is a great product to save my face. After a long flight, as long as my brows are done and I have a bit of concealer on I feel more alive. It's also a great product when it comes to international travel because it's not a liquid and therefore you don't have to have it in those silly clear bags to go through security! And if there's any chance to swap out a liquid product for a powder or other form, I totally will!! It helps that this does wonders for my brows too!! Only problem is, they run out quite quickly...

Fashion:

I bought a fair few pairs of Topshop Mom Jeans this month. I haven't completely strayed away from skinny jeans, but since the weather has been a bit warmer here in Australia the Mom Jeans don't stick to you and still allow air flow on your legs (is that a super weird visual?!)

Going on from that, I had a big splurge at Topshop toward the end of the month, while in Auckland, and there is way too much stuff to talk about that I love! But I am thinking of doing a couple of Lookbooks soon, if that's something you would be interested in??

Music:

I don't have any other answer for this category than Adele!! :)) I was lucky enough to see her twice this month (once in Brisbane, Australia and the other in Auckland, New Zealand) and both times were just magical. I don't get obsessed with songs or artists very often, but her songs helped me remove myself from a bunch of situations and (this is a big call to make and probably won't make sense to most people but,) saved my life. There's a post coming up on the reasons why I love her so much and went to two concerts :)

Other:

This one is probably pretty simple, but drinking water to stay hydrated and keep my skin from drying out; especially with all of the travelling I did.

Spotify helped me stay occupied while sitting around in airports and adding sound to my surroundings while doing boring assignments and exam study.

If you're into podcasts, I would highly recommend the Banging Book Club. It's streamed on Soundcloud and iTunes (the link above is for Soundcloud) and is three YouTubers (Lucy Moon, Hannah Witton and Lena Norms) who read and review feminist/feminism books each month.

much love, 

XO

Food, travelling & Adele.

I don't know what's sparked my sudden fear of the next few years in my life; whether it be the rapid approach of my university graduation, my friends moving interstate and internationally or the countdown to my 20th birthday.

While the phrase across the pond is more frequently used when referring to the distance between America and England (UK), it totally fits for us Australians when referring to NZ (or vice versa). 

I'm heading over to Auckland, NZ tomorrow morning and will be there until Sunday.
I'm totally not going over for the Adele concert *wink wink*

Here are my outfits for the weekend, I've tried to leave links if they are still out.

Flights, food & selfies.