Two of my favourite things: Food and lists = a food list!!

Food items I couldn't live without:

Chocolate
Peanut Butter
Apples
Carrots
Spinach
Capsicums
Tuna
Chicken
Cheese

Food items I could easily live without:

Ice Cream
Bread
Pasta
Red Meat
Coffee
Lollies

...sounds like I'm a health nut. Definitely not the case.
What foods can't/can you live without?

xx

Yo!

Okay okay sorry for not blogging in quite some time. I definitely want to keep the habit up, and will endeavour to do so, but I have just been lacking in motivation a bit. So I shall make this post a round-up of what’s been going on in my life since the last post!

Work – Post-trip depression has died down somewhat and work has been going fairly well. However, we had a meeting with the editor of our sister newspaper a couple of weeks back in which I felt extremely targeted and got quite upset (fighting back the tears). Since then, I’ve tried to make more effort, and haven’t had any complaints so hopefully things are going better. However, when talking with one of the other girls in the office about my issues, she said she also notices the mean way the editor talks to me and constantly criticizes me. So it’s not just in my head. Unfortunately, the editor is the managers’ darling so I don’t feel as though I can talk to her about it.

Gym – I have been really good since I’ve been back, going 5-6 times a week. It’s such a great release for me (especially when issues like the aforementioned are occurring).

Friends –Haven’t seen my Hastings besties for ageeeeeees which has been lame. Spending time with my friends here is always great. It’s good for the soul.

Music – For some reason lately I can’t get enough of Black and Yellow by Wiz Khalifa. It’s not a new tune but it’s just so good and it makes me dance. I also love everything by Miguel at the moment.

Movies – Recently I’ve watched Don Jon, The Wolf of Wall Street, and V for Vendetta. Would recommend the latter two. The first one is, well, interesting. I’ll leave it at that.

TV shows – Almost up to date with White Collar and have one more episode of Sherlock to go. Both are just so great. Suits and Game of Thrones are starting up again in not too long – YUSS. Also, I watched an episode of KUWTK a couple of days ago and was LOLing so much that I’ve now completed series one and two. Guilty pleasure.

Books – Finished Catch 22 finally! It only took me about 2 months haha. Actually thought it was a pretty good read once I was done with it. For the latter half of the book I was appreciating how funny and well written it was. Then read Animal Farm – so fantastic! Am now reading The Book Thief which is Ah-mazing so far. In the interim, I also spent the paperplus voucher I was given at Christmas and bought Gone Girl (soon to be a movie and I’d heard the book is great) and I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson which I finished the day I got it. Cutting out sugar is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and having now read two books about sugar, it’s a main goal of mine.

Car – Argh. Discovered my car had a big oil leak which is going to cost far too much to get fixed. Going to take it for a second quote to see if it’s worth fixing. If not, new car time! Sad though, I liked this one L

Family – Haven’t seen them in quite some time and miss them all the time. Seeing my Dad and sister soon though as sister is moving to Palmy in two weekends! That will be cool. I was tasked with finding her a flat, which I did. I hope she likes it! (though I’m sure she will – it’s awesome). Can’t wait to see Dad as well. I’m taking the two of them out to my favourite Japanese restaurant when they’re down. Eeeeep!!

Garcon – Has been far too long since I’ve seen him. Texting has been good though, for the most part. Can’t wait to see him next. We have some stuff to figure out.

Time for a selfie? I think so...

Heh so attractive.

xx

Post-trip depression

So I’ve been back from Thailand for over a week now. It was pretty darn fantastic. Highlights included: elephant rides, cuddling tigers, full moon party for new years, great shopping, excellent food and the friendliest people I’ve ever come across. It was really a great experience and I want to go back already.

The downside is that now I’m back in Palmerston North at work. It’s so depressing. I legitimately believe I’m suffering from post-trip depression (if that’s not a thing, it totally should be). Everything is so boring, banal and mundane here.

I definitely need some spice added or I might just go crazy.

xx

What I've learnt about life so far

So I’ve lived for 21 years now, which is a pretty decent amount of time to learn a few things in. Today I am going to share with you a few things that I’ve learnt about life.

• Being too strict or regimented is no fun. Whether it be exercise, eating, work or whatever, letting one thing rule your life is not healthy and can drain a lot of the fun out of life.
•  I shouldn’t be ashamed about what I like to do or what I believe in. If it’s benefitting me then who cares what other people/society thinks.
• Continuous mental engagement is super important.
•  I’ll never be like Blake Lively (body-wise, fashion-wise, looks-wise). But that’s ok, she’s probably highly overrated and not as cool as me anyway ;)
• I’ve been given a lot in life. Lots of people are worse off than me and I should try to never forget that.
•  You meet heaps of people in life, but there are only a few who stick by you. Everyone needs those sorts of people in their life so treating them well is absolutely essential.
•  It’s true what they say about exercise being a great way to unwind. When I finish work on a Friday, all I can think about is going to the gym.
• There are some things in life that are totally worth sticking with despite warnings. Like chocolate, for instance.
• You’ll meet some people in life who you don’t click with. It’s not you, it’s not them. The combination just doesn’t work.
• There is nothing wrong with being picky. 

xx

Work life

So while in my last post I was all happy with life, it is of course not the case that all areas of life are amazing. 

I like my new job. It’s interesting, challenging and busier than my previous one. There’s just one thing that’s getting in the way of it being super awesome. And that’s a co-worker. From my very first day here she’s been the least friendly towards me and I feel like I’m constantly doing things wrong. Sure, she says hi and ‘have a good weekend’ and all that, but it’s always uneasy and forced when we talk. She’s just one of those people I can’t bond with, no matter how hard I try. And unfortunately she’s my direct superior and the one I work closest with. Even though my previous role here was boring, I was happier because I was around people that I could joke with and be myself around. And she’s the only one in the entire office that’s harder to get along with. I love everyone else, they’re great!

She constantly shoots down story ideas that I come up with and takes lots on herself rather than delegating to me, and then complains about being ‘soooo busy’. And she makes me feel like I’m really useless at what I do. She doesn’t critique my writing as much anymore (thank goodness) but there are all these other, subtle things that just make me feel crap. Like today after we went to print she told me I had to go and get a new photo for this one shop that advertises with us. I said to her that the client had told me to repeat the last photo then she was like “No, you need to get a new one. Take the initiative, that’s the one they always use.” Like how am I supposed to know, having never dealt with this client before, that they always use that photo? And if the client wants to repeat something, that’s what we do.  But it’s more just the way she talks to me. It’s not friendly at all, it’s harsh and patronizing and I feel like she hates my guts and would rather work alone.

You know how females do it, they make little snide remarks and comments that get under your skin and make you feel stink rather than confront you straight up. This situation is no different. She’ll laugh and joke with everyone else in the office, but never me. Though I guess the same goes for me, as I just can’t with her. It’s not a big, obvious thing, and no one else in the office probably notices anything. But it’s definitely there. And it sure cuts.

I hope and pray that things will get better. We’ve only been working together for a while, so still getting to know each other and stuff. But if not, I don’t know what I’m going to do :(

Those moments you're just like YES

I love those days and moments when you're just like YES cause things are going well. I had a day like that on Sunday. I was back in Hastings for the 22nd birthday of my best friend. I love going back to Hastings, especially in summer. It's where a lot of my favourite people reside and in summer the weather is beautiful and they have the best summer fruit and there's lots of lovely things to do outside whilst soaking up the sun.

So anyway, I had a lovely lunch surrounded by lovely people, then bought some deliciously juicy strawberries from the strawberry patch and chilled back with friends before driving back to Palmy. Even the drive there and back was good because I had new music on my ipod and a new car that is super smooth to drive. Ahhhh bliss.

I got to spend time with this gorgeous birthday girl, which is always a pleasure:

xx

Beautiful Celebs

So I was talking to my friend about celebrity crushes and now I want to make a list of mine. Because I quite like making lists. I will limit it to the males today. Here they are:

Johnny Depp
Cristiano Ronaldo
Matt Bomer
Gabriel Macht
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Logan Lerman
Jake Gyllenhaal
Kit Harington
Henry Cavill
Leonardo DiCaprio
Josh Duhamel
Jon Hamm
Stephen Amell
Alexander Skarsgard
Tom Hardy
Matt Corby
Kelly Slater
Shemar Moore
Gael Garcia Bernal
Michael Ealy
Jared Padalecki
Pharrell Williams

...that's a pretty aesthetically blessed list!!
xx