What's been up lately...

Apologies for my delay between posts, I have been all over the place lately and haven't actually found the time/have been too lazy to sit down and write. But I will be better from now.

Over the past few weeks I have been on the hunt for a job, which is getting more and more desperate/depressing/scary/worrying as time goes on and my savings keep whittling down. Thankfully my hours at my current job have picked up a bit again but still not enough. I have lost count of the number of jobs I've applied for online, but the problem with online job-hunting is that all those jobs are applied for by hundreds of people, and there will always be someone more qualified or better for the role than me. It's hard to not get really down about the lack of success, but I'm trying to keep my head up!

In talking about my monetary woes though, I have myself to blame for a lot of it. I've been travelling around a lot lately, which hasn't helped my funds! I had the 21st of one of my dearest friends in Hamilton one weekend (which was awesome!) then was up in Hamilton again the following weekend for the Parachute music festival (sooooooooo much fun) which was a real money-killer. Fortunately since then I've been able to curb my spending quite a bit, and I've had some decent work shifts too.

Here are some pics from my life lately...

Social social social!! Sorry some of the pics are terrible quality (they're from an iphone).

My next step is to go door-knocking with my CV. I am dreading this very much, but I must do it.

Ly xx

Coldplay

So, last Thursday I journeyed up to Hamilton and then to Auckland on Saturday to go to the Coldplay concert at Mt Smart Stadium. Having never been to a big concert before, I didn't really know what to expect, though I'd heard that they put on an excellent show. I don't really know how to describe it other than in single adjectives: Amazing. Mind-blowing. Extraordinary. Fantastic. Brilliant.

Every song was a hit, Chris Martin was perfect live (and mega energetic - had to change shirts about 4 times due to sweat soakage), and the crowd were soooo into it. Such a buzz. My personal favourite was Princess of China because the band relocated to the front of the stage (it was a runway sorta shape) which was super close to us!!

Also very cool were the different coloured wristbands that every audience member got. These lit up during certain songs, in time with the music!! Soooooo awesome. The stadium looked like a Christmas tree (minus the tree part hah). The show also included fireworks, confetti blasts, a laser show and these giant inflatable ball thingys that were sent through the audience. It was truly spectacular.

After my first concert experience I can definitely say I am keen to go to many more in the future. And I love Coldplay very very much :)

The Temper Trap (most famous for Sweet Disposition) who opened for Coldplay were also amazing.

All in all, a great experience. I want to go again. 

xx

Our trip to Hamilton

It seems to always be the case that when things seem to be going so well, and life is great, it all comes crashing down. This is the case in my life at the moment. After living a relatively drama-free existence for the majority of my life, I don't really know how to deal with the recent dramas in my life. Thank goodness I have the most amazing best friends who are with me every step of the way. Without these girls I don't know how I'd cope. I'm trying to act normal and be myself but it's hard to keep that up when other people make it difficult. Gaaaaaaah.

Anyho...I got back from an amazing week up in Hamilton recently with my parents and my two best friends. It was great. During the week I went out for many meals, went clubbing with the girls, went for a walk around the lake, went to the Hamilton Gardens, played Squash, watched movies, made dinners, went shopping (and spent far too much $$ as a result..eek) and just had a generally lovely time catching up with my nearest and dearest. Some pics from my trips away...

Love these girlies :) Thanks for a great time 

xx

Excitement

After an epic and awesome weekend last weekend, my week just passed has been filled with study (mostly), reading, work and just general, uninteresting things. This will change after Tuesday however, as there's heaps going on after exams finish! And I'm SO excited.

4x friends visiting, a 21st, road trips, op-shopping, reading The Hunger Games finally, movies, Hamilton (!!), catching up with my fav people in ze world...argh!! excitement.

This is me excited. Please also note the wise, approving eyes of Johnny Depp in the background.

Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

xx

Outpour

So much on my mind lately, am going to vent some on here but will try not be too complain-y as I know it's not fun reading girls complain heaps.

Firstly, Facebook.
It's safe to say for me that I'm pretty addicted to it as I tend to check it multiple times each day. In saying that though, I have gone days and even weeks without it before and haven't really missed it because I've been otherwise occupied. I guess I just go on to keep up with the haps, coz I'm really nosy and coz I'm bored/procrastinating. HAH just went on again. But more often than not I really despise it. It gets frikn depressing when those rich, Havelock North girls constantly post pics of their oh-so-glamorous lives (eating at flash restaurants all the time, drinking fancy cocktails, casually hopping over to oz, partying at their richie rich Auckland/Wellington flats, always being suh fashionable etc etc). And those people who are always partying and seem to have the most amazing social lives and look good in every single photo. And those people who are always becoming friends with new people, when you haven't had a friend request in weeks/months. Then there's those annoying people who update their status' like 20x per day, and those people who put 'meaningful' quotes as their status, that really bugs me, like they're trying to be all deeeeeeeeep.
Don't get me wrong, there are those blessed souls who actually make the visit worthwhile, those who put crack up status' up and share interesting links and who you actually want to keep in contact with etc etc. But generally speaking, Facebook sucks. So tempted to delete my account, or at least have a massive purge and get rid of all the people I don't actually care about, which would leave me with maybe 50 friends. And that's another thing, Facebook can be cruel fuel for one's insecurities, when you don't have as many friends as other people, when no one writes on your wall etc etc. And I know you may be thinking that if I feel this way it's my own fault, and yes I know that's the case. But this is my blog and I can write what I want and you can hate if you want, whatever.
First rant over.

Secondly, Food.
Body image/exercise/eating/comparing oneself to all other living beings on earth/failing constantly at goals you set yourself/trying to eat healthily....constantly plagues my mind. What I think about most. Sad eh? I have this one friend who has got the whole 'healthy lifestyle' thing down pat, and that's something I'm insanely jealous of, I just can't seem to get into it. Don't wanna rant about that too much as I will just sound like a sad loser.
Second rant over.

Thirdly, Nek year.
So many people have been asking me what I'm gonna do next year and it makes me feel so lost and worried when I'm always answering with "I have no idea". I've tossed around a few ideas...move to Hamilton and work up there for a bit (way more opportunities there and I have friends and family there, but where would I live? Don't think I'd be able to live at home again, I'm too used to flatting now, but wouldn't really want to live with randoms), live and work wherever I can in Hastings for a year, but would I really want to live with the grandparents for a year (and they probably wouldn't want me there for a whole year) or in a flat with randoms?, move to Wellington and flat with my friend there (lots of media opportunities there and a pretty cool city but so ridiculously expensive - I can't fathom spending $180 a week on rent alone, esp without student loan!), flat with the sister and work in Hawke's Bay? But don't know if I would like to flat with my sister tbh!, stay in Palmy? Have a great flat here, but don't really want to stay here after finishing my studies!, move down South and flat with my friends in Dunedin? Very tempting, and lots of opportunities for work there, but then I'd pretty much have to start from scratch and sell all my furniture etc etc. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. This is becoming quite a source of worry/stress for me. All I know for sure is that I want to work full-time for a year and then head overseas. So insanely keen to travel. But then I'd have to have someone to travel with and none of the people I'd want to travel with seem to be keen or able to when I want to. Sigh.
Third rant over.

Wow. This is one heck of a depressing blog post. Guess you can tell I'm not in a great mood tonight.
Hope you're feeling happier than me.
xx

A few snaps..

A few snaps from my weekend in Hamilton...

Great bookshop. Dunkin Donuts. Chocolate shot. Was a pretty decent weekend, esp lovely to see the parents and the lovely Emma again.
And bestie, ilysomuchandthinkofyouallthetime :)
xx

Sun, Study and Spicy Food

Sorry for being MIA lately. I've been all over the place the last couple of days. In Palmy and Hastings over the weekend and now up in Hamilton. It's great up here in Hamilton - the weather is beautiful, the place I'm staying is comfortable and carefree, and I don't have to pay for food :) excellent. The only thing that detracts from the goodness of Hamilton is the fact that I have lots of uni work to do while up here. But still, its nice to do it in comfort.
We've been having yummy dinners up here too. We had hot & spicy chicken one night (so yum!), a spicy stirfry last night and tonight I'm making Thai Green Chicken Curry for the 'rents. Last time we made it at the flat it went down a treat so I'm hoping they'll like it :)

Went op-shopping this morning, at the biggest SaveMart I've ever seen. I admit I wasn't really in the mood, and the enormity of the shop was pretty overwhelming. But I got some jeans to cut into shorts for summer and a Billionaire Boys Club t-shirt. I've also been meaning to take snaps of my time up here, but keep forgetting to take my camera with me when I go out. bother. I shall try to remember next time.

It was great to catch-up with my sister over the weekend too. She has just arrived back in the country after a 2 month holiday in Europe. Her stories make me sooooo eager to travel. As she doesn't have a blog, I'm gonna put up some of my fav pics of her trip. I'm sure she won't mind :)

Natural History Museum - London

This pic epitomises England for me :)

Cutest market

Harrods

Turkish market

Beach in Turkey - beautiful!

Korea

Barcelona

So keen to see all these places!

xx

Part VI

Welllllllllllllllllll finally have reached Saturday! Though this series has been long and drawn-out, the week up in hams was anything but. We again slept in on Saturday morning (needed sufficient zzz's for the long drive ahead) before getting all packed up and ready to go. The parentals then shouted Jess and I lunch and after that we said our au revoir's and left. The drive back was awesome. Jess and I had the meanest convos, one in particular was about the end of the world. Haha. We stopped briefly in Taupo to stretch the legs and get a drink. The drive went really fast and it was almost a shame to be back in Hawke's Bay. But alas, all good things come to an end. I tell ya though, it's so much more enjoyable having a buddy in the car on long drives :)

The well used back seat

Hamilton trip done. Now I can get back to normal blogging :) yay

xx

Part V

We have finally reached Friday. Slept in this morning (on account of the previous night's escapades) and took our sweet time getting ready and deciding what to do with ourselves. It was windy and chilly again but we ended up going to the Hamilton Gardens which was well worth it. They are amazing. Simply breathtaking. Even though I'm not really into gardening, I still enjoy visiting the place (have been twice before with the parentals). We planned to see as much of the gardens before going to a session of Water for Elephants. So we rushed through the themed gardens (Chinese Scholars, Japanese Contemplation, English Rose, Italian Renaissance, Indian Char Bagh, American Modernist) and what they call the productive collection (herb and vege etc). So we only ended up seeing half of the gardens before rushing off to the movies. This rushing off was, much to our disappointment, a complete waste of exertion as the session was cancelled (cinema maintenance....yadaya). Buuuut at least we didn't entirely miss the gardens :) Since it's winter, things aren't in bloom but it's still beautiful. I can only imagine how magnificent it will be in spring. If you haven't been, I definitely recommend a visit. Jess and I came to an agreement that the Italian garden is the best :)

Other than that, we made lasagna for dinner, followed by fruit pastry cream puffs for dessert and settled in to watch The Romantics, which we didn't enjoy much (my main motivation for choosing this movie was Josh Duhamel, oh so dreamy). A relatively early night followed.

About to start some serious contemplation in Japan

Amidst the Bamboo in China

Whilst in Asia we decided to head over to India...

Then headed over to Europe to visit Italy

Romulus and Remus in Italy

Jess in the Italian amphitheatre

Herbs - divided into culinary, medicinal, cosmetic and cooking 

Some bricks 

La La La Lasagna :) courtesy of Jess and Dale

This was another great day. It was nice to take a break from shopping and get outdoors.

peace

xx

Part IV

On Thursday of that amazing week we had planned to hit the Hamilton Gardens and the Zoo but, unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate. It was pouring down and pretty dang freezing so we decided to hit the last shopping centre we had planned to go to on Friday. Sooooo we headed along to the Base (massive shopping centre just out of Hamilton city with Dressmart, a mall and heapsa other shops). Spent all day there pretty much. Twas fun. Yet again spent too much though. grr.

That night we went to visit our very good friend Emma at her flat, went to a flat party with her then hit town. Town is pretty miiint in Hamilton. My fav place was a club called Agenda which played dub music, esp Skrillex. That sorta place would make a killing in Palmy! Oooooooh and on our way home (I was designated sober driver), I got my first breath test by a cop!! Woohoo. Seeing as I just got my licence like a week before, it was pretty exciting. lol. Some very crack-up moments that night. So yea, got home early Friday morning and slept in. But what we ended up doing on Friday is another post...............!!! Peace.

Shoe shopping

Yay bracelets :)

A very snap happy person

Jess taking a photo log of her purchases

After town..

P.S. Sorry haven't blogged for some time. Jess visited last weekend which was busy but again super. Aaaand now uni has started again! My how time flies.

xx

Part III

Day Three
Aucks! The mothership drove us up to Auckland and dropped us off at Sylvia Park for another day of shopping. That mall is friggin huge. So yea, that's what we did. Shopped. Shopped. Shopped. It was great, though the bank balance certainly suffered. A highlight was lunch at the Theobroma Chocolate Lounge where we shared a panini (absolutely diiiiiiiiivine) and each got a hot drink which came in a cup above a candle to keep it hot! Was pricey but something you don't do often so is justified ;) My mocha was one of the best I've ever had. && when you near the end of the drink, there is actual melted chocolate at the bottom. So you're eating melted chocolate. It's amazing.

One of my favourite purchases of the day was Spaces by Frankie Magazine which showcases spaces where 'creative people live, work and play'. I'm slowly making my way through reading it now, savouring the whimsical, inspirational locations.

Ooooh and we went to dinner at Furnace back in Hamilton, which we only just got a table in. That was also super yummy. Jess had a chicken pasta dish and I had vegetarian cannelloni. We shared chocolate mousse and banoffee pie for dessert. A very busy and indulgent day :)
Enough talk, images are in order...

In the car on the way to Auckland

Sylvia Park

Our amazing drinks at Theobroma

On the train from Sylvia Park to Manurewa

Great purchase

Chicken Pasta at Furnace

Pumpkin cannelloni at Furnace

Chocolate Mousse at Furnace

Banoffee Pie at Furnace

Awesome day. Awesome memories.
xx