Photo Share #1: 1000 Steps

The Boyfriend took me to 1000 steps Kokoda walk which is located on the other side of town near Dandenong. Considering I’m sick and could barely breathe, it was difficult, but I managed!

Blog Swap: Tiffany @ Running Hutch

I am back in the chaos of University this week. I have to admit, I got lazy! I’m use to spending all day being domestic or just enjoying my own company, but now I am being thrown into the world of reading and taking notes. It sounds easy, but when people start throwing around works like “Marxism” and “Psychoanalytical”, you know you’re going to land up with a headache.

This also means that I am even further behind in my 30 days of blogging! However, there was a ray of light that was offered to me when I received and e-mail from 20sb.net. They were organising a blog swap and all we had to do was enter our details and we would be partnered up with a fellow blogger. From there we had to write about Summer Vacations, channelling the memories we had of adventures we enjoyed.

 

I had the good fortune of being paired up with Tiffany from runninghutch.com. She has an incredibly motivating blog, one that I know I will be keeping a close eye on in the future and I recommend going over and taking a look at all her other blog posts because it really is colourful, motivating and entertaining! Tiffany has written up a wonderful post for me which I have posted below; she even included some fantastic photos and I hope you all enjoy her story as much as I did. I found myself agreeing with her about a few things, especially the taxi driver part, the bad weather AND problems with eating while travelling. It really is a good read and I’ve provided all her details so you can all head over there and check her out!

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Weblink: http://www.heavymedal.wordpress.com

Twitter: @Running_Hutch

As owners of a small family business, my parents weren’t much for big vacations. During the summertime, we’d get one or two long weekends at a lake. We’d spit cherries seeds as far off the shore as we could and I would hopelessly try to skip rocks. And while those trips are cherished memories, the one that truly takes the cake is when the Hutchison family splurged and actually left the country for a “real” get-away vacation.

This trip was a pretty major deal…to us…at the time. Mom and dad were using their 25^th anniversary as an excuse to “go big”, and generously decided to take my sister and I with them. We were going to be gone for an entire week! We were leaving the country!! Albeit only next door to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. We were going to take an AIRPLANE to get there!!! I got TWO NEW SWIMSUITS for the trip!!!! ONE OF THEM WAS A TWO-PIECE!!!!!

Such a family vacation as this we had never seen and would surely never see again. I had never felt the mysterious allure of travel adventure like this before (and I’m sure this is where my love affair with traveling began). The build-up to this trip, the excitement of packing, telling my friends, was all such a novelty.

However, when you take podunk, cow-town folk from the perpetual cloud-cover that is western Oregon, and drop them in all the sun and sweat culture shock of tourist-trap Mexico, you have the makings of a National Lampoon’s Vacation, starting with the Taxi ride to the hotel.

Why is it that, no matter where you go in the world, the Taxi driver that is delivering your family from airport to hotel is going to be THE MOST unsafe driver you’ve ever had the misfortune to buckle in with? I remember enjoying the humid breeze from my window as we buzzed by pedestrians and cyclists…and being a little embarrassed at my mom who was yelling at my dad to yell at the driver to slow the hell down.

Why is it that, no matter where you go in the world, you manage to eat the one thing that your immune system simply can’t handle? Fortunately for me, Montezuma’s revenge was really just more of an upset tummy. My sister and parents, however, were another story. We had come across a wonderful little taco restaurant off the beaten path and it had shade. Sold. We sat, ate and were satisfied. The next day, I sat again…bored in the room while my parents and sister refused to leave the room.

Why is it that, no matter what time of year you travel, you’re bound to get caught in some freak adverse weather conditions? A bit of rain was quickly followed by a flash flood. A nice shopping trip on the streets of Puerta Vallarta quickly turned into a I-hope-my-feet-don’t-get-cut-on-any-floating-debris-as-we-wade-through-the-brown-river dash to the only place open and dry during the afternoon siesta.

Why is it that the moment mom and dad get away for some couple fun, deranged animals attack? Okay, this may not be a thing, but I am so bummed I wasn’t there to see a wounded pelican attack my mom. Well, her purse.

It’s a well-known fact that homeless animals are just as adept at separating tourists from their food as shopkeepers are of their hard earned vacation money. The perpetrator in question was to be a wounded pelican. I have always pictured him with a sling around one wing. As my parents approached, the Pelican eyeballed my mom’s tasty leather purse that was swinging, teasingly, toward him. Steadying his unbalanced bird body, he waited until just the right moment and just the right swing of the purse, and then lunged, with his massive beak gaping wide, hoping to swallow the purse whole before anyone could stop him.

Shrieks of disbelief and terror must have emerged from my poor mother. She says she was shocked to find herself playing tug-of-war with a huge bird. Fortunately, they both came out winners. Mom saved her purse and the pelican was spared what would surely have been a deathly dinner.

While all this may seem unfortunate or freakish, it is out of this vacation that familiar and often-repeated family stories were born. Dad loves to laugh at mom’s quack attack. Mom still complains about that taxi driver. My sister talks about how regretfully tasty those tacos were. And that flash flood always reminds me of my first real encounter with poverty. After the water subsided, we took a bus back to the resort. On that bus we were entertained by two young brothers who sang, for spare change, to the percussion of a plastic comb and an empty, ridged water bottle. The boy that sang had a beautiful voice and I wish I knew the words he sang. I remember being surprised to feel both incredibly lucky and incredibly sad at the same time.

Why is it, that no matter where you go in the world, that place leaves a permanent mark on your life?

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Great Story! I’d like to thank Tiffany so much for participating in the blogswap, I really enjoyed her story and I really loved all of her photos. I agree, there is always a holiday or a destination that will always be with you; you feel it in your heart and just the mere mention of the name brings back a flood of memories.

Book Review: Between The Lines

 

 

The Blurb on the Back:
What happens when happily ever after…isn’t?

Delilah hates school as much as she loves books. In face, there’s one book in particular she can’t get enough of. If anyone knew how many times she has read and re-read the sweet little fairy tale she found in the library, especially the popular kids, she’d be sent to social Siberia…forever.

To Delilah, though, this fairy tale is more than just words on the page. Sure, there’s a handsome (well, okay, hot) prince, and a castle, and an evil villain, but it feels as if there’s something deeper going on. And one day, Delilah finds out there is. Turns out, this Prince charming is real, and a certain fifteen-year-old loner has caught his eye. But they’re from two different worlds and how can it ever possibly work?

My Thoughts:

The first Jodi Picoult book I read was Nineteen Minutes and I have been a huge fan of her work ever since. Whenever I saw a book of hers that I hadn’t read, I knew I had to get my hands on it. I love that some of her stories don’t necessarily end the way that you might at first expect them to; there is usually a twist in the plot and something completely unexpected happens. During the winter break from University, I was luck enough to have a few quiet moments to myself where I got to pick up a book of my choice and just immerse myself into a world where I could just enjoy a book from beginning to end. When I heard about Between the Lines, a collaboration book written by Jodi Picoult and her Daughters Samantha van Leer, I knew I had to get this book and I needed to read it right away!

From the moment I knew it was a modern spin on fairy tales, I was sold. I’m one of those girls who loved, and will always love, the Disney fairy tales and their elegant princesses, their evil villains and their charming princes. I know there are other girls like me and regardless of how old or how young we are, we can’t help but get lost in the world of magic and romance. Between the Lines definitely has that modern take on the fairy tale genre and what I noticed about it was the modern day references that were mentioned, especially relating to pop culture, which adds to that modern day feel.

I believe, that although this book really tries to put a modern spin on fairy tales, it’s hard to relate or connect to the protagonist. I’m in my mid-20’s and so connecting with or understanding Delilah is a bit tricky. Oliver on the other hand came across as incredibly one dimensional and I don’t mean that as a joke, he just seemed to lack a lot and there wasn’t much substance to him; but perhaps that is understandable considering the part that he plays.

Overall, I think the book is fun and light hearted. It’s an easy read, it’s nothing too serious or dark and I think quite a lot of people would be able to enjoy it.

Day Fifteen: Pay it Forward

[Day 15]: What's the best compliment you've ever received?

The Best compliment I ever received came from a complete stranger. I know that sounds odd, especially considering my boyfriend compliments me all the time, as do friends and family; but I think that’s why the compliment has stuck in my head for so long. It was last year and it was from a girl who was in a tutorial with me and she said “I really like your jacket, it looks awesome”. It’s quite simple and there was nothing special about the compliment but just that feeling of having a compliment come out of no where, I didn’t have to fish for it (like I’ve been known to do sometimes), I didn’t put any extra effort into getting all dressed up for the purpose of being complimented, and I was basically, just sitting there in whatever clothes I had found that morning and that comment turned my day around.

 

I think sometimes we forget to make those nice comments to people just for the sake of being honest and making someone happy. I know my boyfriend gets frustrated when I don’t accept compliments because usually they make me uncomfortable, but at the end of the day, a few nice works can really change a persons day from being subpar/average to being shinier and happier.

Day Fourteen: Hit Repeat!

[Day 14]: If you were only allowed to watch one movie for the rest of your life, what movie would it be and why?

Easy. The Lion King.

What’s not to love about this movie?

• Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Simba
• Rowan Atkinson as Zazu
• The deep enchanting voice of James Earl Jones as Mufasa
• Whoopi Goldberg as Shenzi

 

• The upbeat music
• “Hakuna Matata…What a wonderful Phrase” – it shaped my childhood!
• “Home is where your rump rests”
• Zazu singing “it’s a small world after all” and then “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts”
• “Whats a motto?” “Nothing, What’s a motto with you?”

 

I really have to go watch this movie again!

Day Thirteen: I heart Favourites

[Day 13]: What are your favourites?

Yeh, Australians spell favourites with a ‘u’. We also spell colour with a ‘u’ and just for shiz and giggles, we spell it “Cheque” and not “Check”. But today’s prompt is all about listing you favourite things.

 

Favourite Cake: Cheesecake

Favourite Movie: August Rush

Favourite Breakfast: Hashbrowns

Favourite Animal: Lions

Favourite Colour/s: Pastel

Favourite Drink: Lemon, Lime & Bitters

Day Twelve: The 6 month plan!

[Day 12]: What are you most looking forward to in the next six months?

Well, lets get started shall we? (In no order in particular)

1. My Birthday (5 & 1/2 days!)
2. Queensland “holiday”
3. Finish my Undergrad
4. Thailand holiday
5. Christmas
6. New Year
7. My mum & sister moving closer to me
8. Melbourne Stampede (if I can find some more motivation)
9. Summer
10. Bikini Weather

Day Eleven: MEmeME!

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? Would it be something physically? Would it be a personality trait or something you have a habit of doing?

Today’s prompt tackles just that, except in reverse:

[Day 11]: What's one thing that you would never change about yourself?

I don’t like the question “What would you change about yourself” because it gives room for those insecurities to pop out and eat away at you like some sort of flesh-eating bacteria. People are so quick to focus on all the negative attributes that they never seem to focus on the positive. I am guilt of doing this, all-the-time. My waist line isn’t small enough, my skin isn’t clear enough, my hair isn’t long enough, my nose is too big and so on and so forth, I’m pretty sure you get the gist of it. So often I watch ridiculous TV shows where girls argue why they want plastic surgery and why they aren’t perfect; this is such a negative way to think about things and I for one am trying ridiculously hard to change this, well, I am now.

So if you haven’t taken part in the 15 Day Challenge (or even those who have) I’m setting the challenge that you need to make a list of the top 5 things you like about yourself physically AND 5 things you like about your personality. I suck at lists because I get to point 2 and then have run out of ideas, but as this is the challenge I’m setting, I’m going to do it first. These are the things that I like about myself and therefore would never change about myself.

Personality

1. I have an awesome sense of humour

2. My ridiculous level of empathy for the people around me

3. My ability to care for the world around me

4. My determination to be better at the things I attempt

5. My drive to achieve the goals I set

 

Physically

1. My Eyes

2. My Boobs

3. My Butt (when I’ve been working out)

4. My Calf muscles

5. My Wrists (yep, I like them)

Day Ten: Embarrass yourself!

So today’s prompt is:

[Day 10]: What is your most embarrassing moment?

and as is the case when anyone asks me this question, I freeze up and have a huge brain fail because I cannot recall my most embarrassing moment. It’s not like I haven’t had thousands of embarrassing moments, I just can’t recall them when I need to and when I don’t need to remember them – they sneak up on me and surprise me. Thanks for that, brain! So what am I left with? The time I had one too many Sangria drinks in Spain, or the Attitude Adjusters that altered my state of mind in Venice? Or do I go with every first day of semester when I have to introduce myself to a whole new group of people and my face turns bright red with embarrassment?

To be quite honest, I can’t nail down one particular memory because there are far too many of them and like I said, my brain saves those memories for the moments where I really don’t need to be thinking of cringe-worthy things that I’ve done. So instead of talking about a particular memory, I’m going to try and talk about these embarrassing moments in general.

Throughout my life, there have been moments that have been varying degrees of embarrassing. The moments where you want to cringe or the moments where you just want to hide under a rock and never emerge. When I was 4 or 5, I remember being at a friends house and being so scared to use their bathroom because I was scared of my friends older brother, that it resulted in a very wet accident. I can assure you there was nothing sinister going on, people just scare me. That was one of the times you just never want to think about but occasionally pops into your head just to screw with you a bit. There are also those times that were alcohol induced but you can still remember them as clear as day and it doesn’t help that there is photographic evidence, those moments are especially devilish because even though you can blame it on the alcohol, there’s still no escaping that it was you and you really did dance on a table for fun.

 

Oh look, I’ve already managed to rattle off two embarrassing stories for you. But like I keep saying, embarrassing moments are just that not necessarily because of how cringe worthy they are when you are in the moment, no, they are so frustrating because they tend to stick with you and that back of your mind, waiting for the right moment where you shouldn’t be thinking about them, and they just pop into yours mind. Like during job interviews, while your watching a movie or while your in the middle of a very serious situation.

Job Interviewer: “So Kerri, Why should we hire you”

Kerri’s mind: “OK PEOPLE, Play that movie of when Kerri crashed her ex-boyfriends car”

Kerri: “…*turns bright red and then starts to cringe*…”

That really did happen by the way, well not the interview, although there have been times where I have been sitting outside waiting to go in for an interview and something hilariously inappropriate enters my mind. But the car thing, really did happen.

Unfortunately right now, I can’t think of any more specific moments in my life where something has been super embarrassing, although I do know they exist and I do know they will pop up at the worst possibly time. The worst part about these memories is that they are very hard to get rid of, they are always going to be there and I’m always going to cringe when I remember them. Although some of them are hilarious, for people like me, the constant reminder of those moments is enough to make us cry and as that painful memory replays itself in our heads, we wish we could do anything to make it go away and to go back in time and relive the moment differently. But I guess at the end of the day, that’s life, embarrassing moments and all! Some are hilarious, some make us cringe and some make us want to run and hide, but they are just one more piece of evidence that we live lives that aren’t written out perfectly for us, we take each step and we enter each moment differently and sometimes those steps give us good memories, sometimes those steps give us bad memories and then all the other times get left in the “embarrassing moments” box waiting like a jack-in-the-box to be let out when we “need” them the most.

Day Nine: Best day so far…

Day Nine already, I’ve almost caught up entirely! Today’s prompt is:

[Day 9]: Tell us the best day of your life to date.

In all seriousness, how can you pick one? I’m not ever 25 yet and I have so many of the greatest days every! So in honour of my upcoming 25th birthday, I’m going to give you the top 25 days that I’ve had in my whole life, but of course – not in any particular order!

1. Meeting my Boyfriend. I was sitting at a cafe, he brought me a pink gerbera flower, it was beautiful!
2. Graduating High School! At the time it was incredibly stressful and I had to work my ass off to get my grades up.
3. Getting on a plane to fly to Europe. I was alone, it was a long way to travel and it was my first time travelling alone.
4. Being accepted into my University – something I had wanted for so long.
5. Waking up in a beautiful holiday cabin on my first holiday with my boyfriend.
6. The day I got my school captain badge in Primary School.
7. Seeing Cirque Du Soleil for the first time…and the second time.
8. The time I got to ski down a mountain by myself without ski-poles.
9. Going to Philip Island with my Boyfriend
10. Going to Queensland with my Boyfriend
11. Hiking Mount Snowdon in the UK
12. The day I was born  - of course!
13. The day I went bungee jumping twice
14. The day I saw my grandmother for the first time in a ridiculously long time.
15. Going back and seeing my old primary school.
16. The day I got my drivers license.
17. When I got my braces off.
18. When my sister was brought home from the hospital.
19. All the days I spent any my grandmothers house (South Africa).
20. The day I ran my first fun run.
21. The first time I went to Lindale Farm.
22. The day my boyfriend and I went to a drive in movie.
23. The days when I came back from travelling and mum would cook me a REAL meal.
24. The Christmas, when my parents got a long in order to give my sister and I great day.
25. My 15th Birthday.

Day Eight: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Today’s prompt is incredibly hard:

[Day 8]: Describe “The Good, the bad, and the Ugly” of yourself

Well, that’s complicated I guess. I really haven’t thought about that at all! Lets see how this goes!

 

{The Good} I’m a talented writer when I sit down and actually focus on what I want to write about. (When I have money of my own) I can be very generous. I’m an empathetic person. I can be stubbornly determine I have impeccable selective hearing   {The Bad} I get stressed easily. I can be stubborn. I don’t communicate well. I don’t ask for help. I blush easily which is only accentuated by a birthmark on my face which has a habit blazing red for no reason. I hold grudges. I have impeccable selective hearing. I’m a terrible judge of character although I’m adamant that I’m excellent at picking people. {The Ugly} I eat faster than the people I’m dining with. I can be impatient. I take constructive feedback personally. I can’t admit when I’m wrong. I have impeccable selective hearing.

Day 7: Book it!

Ok, so I’m only 4 posts behind, I can catch up…right? Well hopefully I can, I am going to spend the next hour doing all 4 blog entries that I need to do to catch up. Hang in there!

Prompt 7 for the 15 day challenge reads:

[Day 7]: Recommend a book for us to read. Why do you think it’s important?

 

I don’t think there are any books that I’ve read that I find crucially important. I have read books that I have loved and could happily read numerous times (Harry Potter, I’m looking at you), there are books I’ve read that I really liked but don’t need to read again and of course there are books that I hated and will probably never pick up again. So I think in order to answer this question, I’m just going to discuss some of my favourite books that are happily homed in my book collection. Because I’m a literature student, I have more books than I need, but hopefully I can select a few authors or specific books to list for everyone and explain why I like them so much! In no particular order here they are:

The first real author I got into after JK Rowling was Jodi Picoult. Obviously the difference being that at the time JK Rowling was for a younger generation where as Jodi Picoult was aiming for an older audience. I had read various other books between my Harry Potter phase and Jodi Picoults books, but she was the first author that I felt the need to read more than one of her books. I bought one, then I bought another and then I kept my eye out for “2 for 1” sales and so forth just so I could stock up on her books. The first book I read of hers was Nineteen Minutes and I fell in love with it, it was twisted, it was different, the story line wasn’t as clear cut as I expected in the beginning and it’s basically the book that got me hooked, from there I moved on to My Sister’s Keep, Salem Falls, The Pact, Plain Truth and so on. I recently just bought another book by Picoult and her Daughter called Between the Lines, I plan on getting through it tonight after I finish my blogs!

I’m a literature student, so naturally I’m required to read A LOT of books. We are often expected to read mammoth sized books in record time which leaves me missing out on facts and details than normal, relaxed reading, would allow me to pick up on. However, when I picked up Dubliners by James Joyce, I couldn’t put it down. It irritated me. I’m not kidding, I hated it, until I finished it. This is a bunch of short stories which offers GLIMPSES into other peoples lives, so you might not read about where these people came from, or what happens at the end of their tale, but you get to see into their lives for a moment and that’s really irritating. With stories, you expect a beginning, middle and an end, but with these little glimpses, you don’t get the whole story and while that annoyed me, in the end it’s what got me so addicted. I might not know what happened to the characters in the end, but in the end, that doesn’t matter.

Mary Janice Davidson is the other author I got hooked on for a while, because her books are funny and different; very light hearted and easy to read. The main books I like from her are the Undead series, which is basically about a young woman who has to cope with her new life as Queen of the vampires. I got hooked on these books when a lot of my friends were getting hooked on True Blood and The Vampire diaries. I have never gotten into True Blood or The Vampire diaries, I like vampire stories but I just, didn’t click with them. When I picked up my first Undead book, I didn’t read the first book, I think I read the 3rd or 4th book first and then went back and read all the other stories just because it was different. It wasn’t so dark and eerie it was funny and romantic while being somewhat feminist and not so feminist, it was just a jumble of comedy and I think I should go find out what books I’ve missed from that series because they were really entertaining!

   

Day Six: The Umpossible.

Prompt number six reads

[Day Six]: What's something you've always wanted to do but haven't? Why not?

When I read this question, the first thing that popped into my head was “Swim with Sharks”. I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, more the bungee jumping, more than skydiving and pretty much more than anything else in this world.

When I was much younger, I wanted to be a marine biologist and I wanted to focus my attention on sharks and so forth. I do really love sharks and I appreciate how awesome and magnificent they are. But don’t get me wrong, I’m also scared of them but my appreciation for them outweighs my fear, if that makes any sense at all.

 

It’s like when I hear on the news about someone being attacked by a shark, that’s a horrible thing to happen to a person and I can’t even begin to imagine what that must be like for someone to experience. However, when the news reports then turn to people demanding a shark cull in the area, I get really annoyed. I mean, people tend to go swimming and the wrong time of day or in areas that they should be and land up being attacked. I’m not saying it’s their fault in any way, absolutely not, but if you started tramping around Kruger National Park at the wrong time of day, you’ll probably encounter a lion or two and if they don’t greet you with a nice big cuddle, don’t be surprised. My point has been lost….my point is that the ocean is the Sharks natural environment, it’s home to these creatures and if you want to go swimming in their home, then you need to respect that instead of demanding we kill as many sharks as possible. if you want to skipping around Kruger National Park dressed as a Zebra, good luck to you!

 

Like I said, it’s not the fault of the swimmer when a shark attacks, to them, you just look like a seal and sharks eat seals. I’m not saying it’s nice, or we should just expect it, we just shouldn’t be so quick to say “KILL THE WILD BEAST!”

If you went swimming around my house, I probably wouldn’t have a friendly chat with you either, I probably wouldn’t take a bite out of you, but if you go swimming in someone else’s home, things are going to get complication.

 

Anyway, I’ve gotten horribly off track with my Pro-animal rights rant.

 

I always wanted to go swimming with sharks. At first, I want to get into a cage and jump in with the Great White Sharks in South Australia, but now I’m thinking a trip to the aquarium to swim in the tanks with those sharks. Either way, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but I put it off because of financial issues or just, generally putting it off for another day I guess.

Day Five: The Five Dinner Dates

If you could have dinner with any 5 people in the whole world, who would you choose? Why would you choose them? What would you ask them and what would you tell them? That is the challenge I’m faced with for today’s prompt.

[Day 5]: If you could have dinner with any five people, who would they be?

Yeh, small problem there. I’ve been watching Doctor who for the past hour and so, I really can’t think passed – Dr. Who. I’m trying to take this seriously, but who wouldn’t want dinner with Dr. Who?

 

Ok, so because I’m failing in my 15 day challenge and my 30 day challenge, I took some time to think of who I would have a 5 person dinner party with and what I would serve them. To be quite honest, I don’t think I want to invite any dead relatives. I noticed a fellow challenge contestants started saying in their entries that they would invite their grandparents who died before they were born or other such people, but I don’t think I would want to. I mean, sure it would be GREAT to speak to my grandmother again and there are relatives that I never got the chance to meet that I would love to get to know or ask what their stories are, but I also know how I am and I don’t think speaking to them would be so great for me. I mean I know this is all hypothetical and you can’t really invite dead people to dinner, but even in this hypothetical situation, I’d get upset at the mere sight of my grandparents, and then when dinner ended, I’d probably walk out the door with them into the big wide unknown because I wouldn’t want them taken away from me again. Do you see my conundrum? Again, I know I’m reading WAAAAY too far into the question.

If it were easy enough, I would say – I would have dinner with my Grandmother, her mother and her grandmother, just to see what stories they have and what they can share with me, I’d also get them to tell me all about the family tree just so I could help my mother out, who is struggling to put it all together. I’d also invite two of my relatives on my dad side, for similar reasons.

 

But in fun, I looked to celebrities or characters who I would love to spend an evening with, laughing over grape juice served in wine glasses and eating cheese fondue.

I would invite:

Doctor Who If you didn’t see that coming, you’re kidding yourself.
Doctor Daniel Jackson His gift would be all access pass to the star gate (because all dinner guests are expected to bring gifts)
James Joyce He’d be there to write all about the evenings events. Dubliners Style.
Claudia Donovan Otherwise it would be a bit weird, me having dinner with a bunch of guys. Needed to even the playing field.
Peter Bishop I’ve invited the guy who travels through time and space and the guy who travels throughout universes; so it was only fitting that I invite the guy who travels between parallel universes.

And if any of them couldn’t make it, I’d invite the kids from Harry Potter.

 

Also, conveniently I might add, most of these people are associated with messing around with time, time travel, collapsing universes and other such fun events so, in my wisdom, this could work out well! Not only could I ask them anything and everything I need to know about time travel, I could also prolong the entire dinner because I could just keep going back in time. I know, it breaks so many rules, but think of the fun I could have.

Day Three: Clothing

Day Three Prompt: Tell about an article of clothing that you’re deeply attached too.

I don’t think there is any item of clothing that I’m “deeply” attached to. I have a couple of hoodies that are in my memories box that are from High School or from Travelling that has a list of peoples names on the back, and I’d be devastated if I ever lost them but I can’t say that I’m deeply attached to them, because I hardly ever think about them! They are just, in my memory box…so that in 20 years I can boast about the my crazy younger days. Yep, I’m a hoarder, I have every symptom of being a potential hoarder.

I did try going through all of my photos to see if there was an item of clothing that I wore religiously or something that seemed to be a staple item in my wardrobe. I did find that I wore a) a lot of black and b) cardigans or jackets. The thing is, I live in Melbourne – which is usually pretty cold. I’d say 75% of the year, it’s cold or there’s a wind chill factor; basically there is always a reason to be cold here in Melbourne. My wardrobe seriously lacks, everything. I don’t have enough light-weight clothes for the summer and I definitely don’t have enough warm clothes for the winter. When I’m cold, I have to wear anything that I find in my wardrobe that’s clean. This usually means wearing 2 cardigans, a jacket, scarf, pair of gloves and so on and so forth – seriously, I feel the cold very easily. I remember last year when I wasn’t carrying around so much insulation (bodyfat) and suddenly it felt a WHOLE WORLD COLDER.

Day Two: Six-Word Memoirs

Hello, Hello! Well it’s day two of the 15 day challenge and todays prompt is all about writing memoirs, short ones, 6 words to be exact. I didn’t know how I was going to do mine, I mean 6 words is really hard to work with! But then I saw Suze at Suze Blog at I really liked the way she set hers out. She came up with milestones or eras within her life and used them as a starting point to create the 6 word memoir. So because I think it’s such a great idea, I’m going to follow her lead and go with a similar method.

Childhood: Daydream Believing: adventure and magical hideaways.

Teenager: Pain, Anger and Truth with Lies.

20Something: Learning from the past; moving forward.

 

To go one step further, I’m going to explain my choice of words and why I feel they describe those decades in my life. First and foremost, the fun that was my child hood! I was a bit of a dreaming when I was younger, I was the type that believed in magical beings, fairies and other such things. I use to believe the characters in my books were real and there was a world of adventure I was missing out on. When I was living in New Zealand, our area use to flood a lot and I thought that I could be like Christopher Robin (but a girl) and turn an umbrella upside down and sit in it like a boat and it would take me away to some place amazing (clearly didn’t understand the concept of what floats and what sinks!) But my point is, I was one of those creepy kids that live in some imaginative world in their head because that’s just how they are.

As a teenager, I wasn’t exactly the poster child for perfection. I was really angry, I was sad, I was a jumble of emotions and while I realise it was my teen years and I’m not the only one to experience hardship in my life, I’m just well aware that all that pent up frustration I had and the animosity I had toward my parents and my family was part of the reason I made bad choices and basically led a life of self-destruction. I wasn’t a terrible teenager but I did make bad choices and if I could go back again and do it all over again OR if I could go back and tell my 15 year old self what she’s doing wrong, I would make it abundantly clear that I’m stronger than the choices I make, I don’t need to be impressing anyone else or fighting for the attention of my parents, I just need to find my own courage and make the choices I know are right.

 

And clearly my 20something memoir is fairly self-explanatory. I’m smarter these days and I’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past that I know what I need to learn and what I need to change in order to shape the future I want. The past is the past and there isn’t anything I can do about it to change it, I made my mistakes and whether or not the choices I made back then were right or wrong, I can’t change them; all I can do is look to the future and realise that the mistakes of my past are what gave my strength in the present. 

15 Day Challenge

So I know I’m in the middle of a 30 days of Blogging challenge (a person challenge) but I’ve also decided to partake in a challenge called the 15 Day Challenge by Sarah @ Life of Love.

Depending on the day and how I’m feeling, I think I will do this in connection with my 30 days of blogging. So if I feel like writing about something else, there might be 2 posts a day (the 15 challenge prompt and what I want to write) but on the days where I can’t think of anything to write about, my 15 day challenge prompt will be my main entry. Get it? It’s not important, the only thing you need to know is that for the next 15 days of my 30 challenge, I WILL have something to write about!

 

So as it is day one, the prompt is….*drumroll* FIFTEEN fun facts about me!

1.	I was born in South Africa.
2.	I’ve been scared of Dolls for…a really long time.
3.	I have 3 visible scars (Lip, Ear & Index Finger).
4.	I’ve had my belly button pierced 3 times, but only 2 piercing holes remain.
5.	I hated eating in public as a teenager, not because of weight issues, I just didn’t like feeling like people were watching me.
6.	When I was little, I couldn’t wait to be an adult so I could buy “100 Happy Meals” and eat them all (never going to happen).
7.	I can eat a Jalapeño without any problem.
8.	I had braces when I was 12. Actually, that’s not a fun fact, that was torture.
9.	I use to love hats growing up. I ruined my mothers wedding hat and I loved to explore my grandmothers old hat collection.
10.	I started my Primary School Netball team because I hated Gymnastics and the soccer team was too selective and they were the only two options at the time.
11.	I use to love Pumpkin, then I hated it and now I love it again.
12.	I can’t eat red apples without wanting to amputate my stomach afterward.
13.	I skied down one of the highest mountains in New Zealand, without ski poles. And I was 11.
14.	I love the smell of a good coffee. I just can’t stand the taste of ANY coffee.
15.	My favourite scent is Cherry Blossom perfume.

 

Ta-Da. That’s 15 fun but random facts about me. Anything I should know about you?