I'm dreaming of a white christmas

Talking about a snowwy Christmas with women from England makes you realize how limited and Aussie Christmas can be. In Australia we tend to promote summer more than we promote Christmas (now I'm not bagging out summer but c'mon people, Christmas!).

Before I die I really hope to experience a white Christmas. Bunking down in rooms golden from the light of fires, bells ringing while watching snow fall, carols being sung door to door. The feeling of community and huddling together in the freezing cold and loving Christmas. 

Right now I'm sitting in a room in front of a fan and sweating to death from the heat/ humidity. Some how, that doesn't seem quite right. Have to make the most of the people who do get pumped about Christmas here. Work christmas parties are exciting and decorating a Christmas tree with every single ornament you can find, that's what Christmas is like for me. 

I do enjoy our Aussie Christmas though. by 6am my family is usually down at the beach enjoying the morning air and the feel of the undisturbed sand and water, before the masses join us. Usually, this means we then head home for breakfast and share presents etc around the Christmas tree before lunch. This year, my mum's parents have moved to Perth as well and so they will be spending Christmas lunch with us and we will spend after lunch lazing around in food comas and opening and gifting presents. 

I love the family feel of Christmas, and I hope I can maintain that during my adult life. Every second Christmas we spend in NSW with my dad's parents now since my mums parents moved over here. Christmas at my grandmothers house is huge. My dad has 6 brothers/ sisters and they each have about 3 kids each and everyone piles in for Christmas lunch. It's one of my favourite things. It does make the Christmas's spent in Perth seem a lot smaller, but they still feel special in their own way. 

I really love to hear about other people's Christmas traditions, so feel free to drop a comment and let me know how you spend Christmas every year.. c'mon Australia, let's bring back some Christmas spirit!

I always promise that before the 25th of December I will have made a Christmas song to upload.. most likely.

Ciao, xx
 

Pillows and my pathetic wrapping skills

Wrapping pillows is a bitch. Those things are so fat, and poofy, and cushiony and take up so much wrapping paper! In other words, mums present is DONE. *checks off list*

Alright, only have to buy for my father now and I have a couple of ideas. By that I mean my dad wrote a 20 item long list and gave it to me to 'hint' at what he wants. So after hitting up the shops tomorrow and finding a sports calendar and some kind of sports accessories for my dad and a waffle iron for my sister I should be completely finished on the Christmas shopping front! Feels good. 

Have discovered that Wok in a Box makes pork dumplings, which is very exciting because I thought they just didnt exist in Perth. My dumpling excitement is probably the most exciting thing to happen since Thursday, which is oh-so-fine by me. The last few days have all been over 40 degrees and so summer has really started to sink it's claws in. 

This morning, when I was up at 8am to beat the rushes at the shops so I could find appropriate cushions for mums out door seating area, I found out that the shops don't open until 9am, woops. After escaping seconds before the crazed mob descended onto Whitfords I became a taxi for mum and her friends. If you're going anywhere near the beach during weeks like these, you're not going to get a park unless you head up at about 1am. 

Been reading a new series - Matched by Ally Condie and am so far unimpressed. I'm not sure whether it's editing issues with transferring the books from hardcopy to ebooks or if the authors writing style is just horrible but it's proving to be very hard to get past the words themselves and into the story. I finished the first book and have begun Crossed but am very quickly losing the desire to finish as the writing style seems to have become even more jumbled (much like my blog posts). This is unfortunate as Ally Condie has thought up an interesting futuristic scenario with some aspects that are quite fun to think further about but she loses the reader after awhile as the writing is blocking the story. 

 It's too hot today for anymore posting, my brain never turned on this morning so I'm just gonna sign on out :)

Ciao xx
 

Lazy Day Friday

What a crazy week! It's Friday and I can finally breathe again. Wednesday was the longest day I've had in a long time, but man what a day! Performing at Burswood theatre was incredible. Just running around backstage was exhilarating. Getting to run around between dressing rooms, wardrobes, green rooms, wings and the pit at a theatre you've been attending shows and musicals for years turned me into a little fan girl. I probably react more to buildings like that than most famous people which is kind of weird..

Our first blocking rehearsal and run through on the stage was at 9:30am and I gotta say.. it wasn't amazing. The floor was very different to the basketball court we were used to, and a number of us slipped or stuffed up a move here and there. After that we had until 2:15pm to explore, eat, and get stage ready. at 2:15 the final dress rehearsal started and when our piece was up we did so much better.

I spent 1 hour trying to get my hair to curl and then it dropped about 20 minutes later. After re-curling it, it dropped again after about an hour and so in the end I had to just flip the ends out to make it look bouncy. Thanks hair, you've always got my back! After dinner it  was show time! I was exhausted by this time but the adrenaline kept us all going. The performance went well and watching the second half of the show was so inspiring. After almost 18 hours of concentration and stress the show was finished and I had the pleasure of finding my way out of Burswood and back home. Ended up sitting in traffic for over an hour, getting close to falling asleep in my car.

Thursday night was Bon Jovi! What an incredible show. Jon Bon Jovi was amazing on stage and it's great to see a band perform live and they still sound great. Such an amazing show to be in the crowd for. After another long day/night it was so nice to wake up this morning knowing I had nothing to do. I enjoy my lazy days way too much, I end up craving them during my busy days.

I'm on to a new book series beginning with Matched by Ally Condie. I'm only about half way through the first book at the moment but it's not as gripping as I was hoping for. Still good enough that I want to find out what happens. It has a number of interesting themes and the futuristic setting (yes, yes a futuristic, somewhat dystopian, young adult romance once again) is fairly interesting to think about. Yes, that's right I read books and then I think about them - how am I single? the boys should be lining up.

Anyway, this is my lazy day so i'm not going to try and write anything even slightly worthwhile, and so this is it.

December 10th, 2012

December 10th, 2012 was not the best of times but it was not the worst of times. I was moving home. Melbourne was not working. I was somewhat traumatised from the sharehouse experience I'd had and I wanted to be with the whole family for Christmas.

December 10th, 2012 marked the end of the craziest week of my life. The Wednesday prior was when the decision was made that it was time to go home. The next few days were spent trying to make everything work. I sent home 10 huge post packs of stuff and threw out two trunk loads of stuff/ clothes in order to come in at the right weight for my suitcases. I had to quit my job, finish my traineeship, have some awkward goodbye conversations that I could have done without, ship my car back to Perth and pack up my room.

Today, December 10th, 2013, I am about to attend a Champagne brunch with the girls from work. (Here's hoping Spinnakers has nice brunch food, i'm not one for champagne). And tomorrow I'm performing at Burswood Theatre. Thursday night is Bon Jovi.. and I so do not regret leaving.

You always know that some things just take time. A bad break up will seem like a distant memory, in time, moving somewhere else will seem like home, in time, but until you get to that point, however many months or years later, it doesn't seem realistic. Here I am, a year later and smiling. The only reason I smiled at this point last year was that I was going home without my family telling me I had failed. Pretty bleak time.

Expect a review on Spinnakers. I hear it's pretty fancy and, no doubt, that's the reason we will leave there after brunch to continue drinking at The Breakwater instead.

Ciao xx

Christmas bells are ringing, out of town

It's hard to maintain a positive view of Christmas when you're elbowing your way through the crowds at the shops, or when you're working in retail. There's just not really a good place to be in the shopping centres in December. Whether I'm serving rude customers and having visions of hitting them with a crusty loaf of bread, or trying to do a quick dash to the shops for necessities and taking over an hour to get in and out.. I'm just not a happy camper in December. Which is sad, because I'm one of those people cranking up the Christmas carols from December 1st and blasting them all the way through till the 25th. I love Christmas! The shops ruin it!

There is now 2 more sleeps until the big, end of year concert for The Dance Collective at Burswood Theatre and today was my last day to get everything I needed. Running through the shops trying to find the right underwear, make-up, hair pieces, shoes.. and realising I've had a good 2 months to do this in. Organisation, not my strong point.

Last night was the first full blocking rehearsal and run through and it was incredible. There are some amazing dancers at this school (myself not included unfortunately) and it was really amazing to watch their pieces. Trying to get to Burswood by 9am on Wednesday morning is going to be a pretty dodgey start to a VERY long day but it's still exciting! Tomorrow is the Christmas champagne bunch for the seniors at my Bakers Delight store and as much as I want to go all out, I feel that being hung over for all day tech and dress rehearsals on Wednesday could be a terrible idea.

Finally found a suitable present for my brother, Halo Risk.. should be awesome. still have my mum and dad to buy for and I am completely lacking on the ideas front. Haven't had a chance to film anymore songs as my house has been overrun with workmen trying to finish my parents bathroom renovations before Christmas (seeing as they're already running 2 weeks overtime). Not a fan of the accidental audiences.

For my next trick, I have to learn how to apply false eye lashes and create stage-worthy smokey eyes for the concert. You can tell I fail at being a girl by the fact that my reaction to these instructions was "I have no idea what you want me to do". I'll be sure to post a picture if it's truly hideous. Still waiting on the delivery of a dress I ordered almost 3 months ago now, the tracking number tells me that it's 'in transit' and the estimated delivery time says 'depends on courier' so who knows where the damn thing is. Online shopping, it's not for everyone.

This was a completely boring ramble about what I've been doing and what's still to come in the next week - but this is my busy week and I am never busy! So all I want to do is sleep when I'm not at one of my activities. Almost fell asleep watching The Croods while working in the crèche this morning - I'm great at looking after your kids.. trust me I'm a rat!

A poor excuse for a post

It's  that time of year again, when the grades supposed to go up on Monday sneak out on Friday and either ruin or improve your weekend mood. And I finally kicked uni's butt! Distinctions all round after a stressful semester of cramming and rocking up to my statistics exam without a calculator. It's a Christmas miracle! Meanwhile, my bank account continues to shrink with paying for a new passport on top of my car and night guard.

I finished the fourth book of the Lux Series and I can't wait for the final book! Opposition is set to come out in August 2014 so it's going to be a long wait to find out how it ends. I'm also still waiting for the release of the final book in the Premonition Series by Amy A. Bartol in 2014. Should not have finished all these books right before summer. Need to find something new to read before I end up watching old Friends episodes all summer long.

It's about to go crazy at The Dance Collective as they're gearing up for their big end of year dance concert. All day blocking rehearsals today finishing at 10pm, individual classes rehearsing dances tomorrow (mine finishing at 10pm), and an all day tech and dress rehearsal AT Crown Theatre on Wednesday before the concert Wednesday night. It's all happening down at TDC. Pretty excited to get in and around Crown Theatre. What a space to perform on.. too bad it's in Perth and not somewhere else fancy. Oh well, take what you can get.

- Call time is 7am Wednesday morning to run through all the acts before 2:15pm. Considering I'll be spending all day Tuesday at a Christmas Champagne Brunch with work that Wednesday morning could be somewhat interesting. And Thursday night is BON JOVI! So excited! It's a busy week for me, considering I generally do nothing all day and all night. I'm pretty much a grandma at 20.

Triumphs and Tribulations

I've been lazy. I have accepted this fact and I'm ready to move onto the next stage of dealing. I thought exams were stressful, but I should have been preparing myself for the stress of the weeks after and all the jobs I've left myself to do! I am now realising that it's possible I said 'oh I'll leave it till I'm done with exams' a few too many times..

Typically, I'm the kind of person that likes to do one main thing a day. So how ever many items I have on my to-do list is how many days it will take to complete them. But of course, on days I have long shifts at work I put off doing any jobs. Lately, my procrastinator-lazy-couchpotato self attitude has had a bit of a shock. My to-do list was a big one and Christmas was only a matter of weeks away. It was time to get serious.

I have successfully managed to buy a costume for my dance concert, take my car into the mechanics and get her fixed up, go to the dentist, go to the doctors, go to a number of job interviews for a traineeship I have since decided can wait, do half of my Christmas shopping, lose 5kilos, clean/reorganise my room (that was a rough day I'm telling you), and get organised for my 3 work Christmas parties and secret santas. Throughout all of this I have also successfully forgotten to buy work shoes and have been mopping floors or running after children with holes in the bottom of my shoes.. it's not great.

Not only am I terrified of the dentist (I know, grow up Maddy stop being so predictable), but I'm now terrified of the bill. Who knew turning 20 and being mature and responsible was so damn expensive! yesterday 600$ disappeared towards fixing my car and in a few days i'm going to have to fork out 700$ to fix my jaw.. and I get to wear a sexy plate to bed every night! come at me boys *reow*. I sincerely hope nobody is expecting Christmas presents from me this year.. oops.

I have also managed to almost finish reading a 5 book series in the last 3 weeks (possibly why I never have time for jobs) and I recommend it to anyone who wants a nice light read. Girls, we all know paranormal romances were in, are in, I don't know it looks like dystopian books are in at the moment but I'm still reading both. Anyway, The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout is worth a read. This is probably a little bit lighter than most of the books I would recommend people, but it's always nice to read a book focussed on the love story after you've been reading book after book on dystopias and end of the world stuff.

Obsidian is officially the first book. There is a prequel novella that was released as well, but I've never been a fan of those little *0.5* stories that come out in between the main story so that one's up to you. Be warned this series centres around aliens.. (I'm pretty sure it says that in the blurb so no big spoilers). I'm a fan of the vampires, angels and demons, nephilim, maybe some magic/ witches etc.. but I have actively avoided any books centred around aliens. For some reason they just don't do it for me. Therefore I started reading this book when it was recommended for me off my kobo.. without reading the blurb. And I'm so glad I did! This is a sexy, exciting adventure with a pretty good lead male if you're looking for your next book boyfriend ladies! So give it ago - it's summer, or winter.. depending on where you are - plenty of time to kick back and read a good book or 5.

 

Show my youtube some love guys!

 

Ciao for now xx

Buttons, Fashion, and moving on

Left alone to my own devices, I can be quite disruptive. I'm one of those people that loves pressing buttons on things in shops to find out what they do. Yes, I know, we all hate those people. Anyway, my latest adventure was in Smiggle. During my hunt for an awesome Christmas present for my sister I stumbled upon the 'Smiggle Toaster'. Okay.. cool.. it's some kind of toaster.. toy.. thing. On closer inspection I realised that the 'toast' was actually note paper. Sure that's cool enough. While playing around with it working out what it did I pushed the 'toast down' button and a piece of note paper shot out the top.. I jumped and the paper went flying and it was just an exciting experience for everyone. That little toaster won itself a spot in my sister's Christmas package this year!

Speaking of packages, a parcel containing a new pair of shoes FINALLY arrived today after so long back and forth between me and the company while they stuffed around with my order. All in all, totally worth it, agreed? Shoespie is a really cool little shop in China with a whole bunch of good deals and so far (after about 1 hour of wearing them) I have to say, totally worth it.

Still waiting on a dress from Sammydress - it's been over 2 months since I ordered it and apparently it just came back in and was shipped last Thursday so pretty soon I'll be rocking the world in my new Chinese clothes. Good deals on both the sites so if you're interested I do recommend them, just check your orders if they seem to be taking their time.

Continuing on from yesterday's post, todays video represents the plan for 2014. Legally Blonde was all about accepting that something wasn't working and returning home. I was torn whether I preferred Defying Gravity from Wicked or You Haven't Seen The Last of Me from Burlesque for today's video. Both of the songs hover around the 'yeah things sucked but I'm not quitting' theme and are from musicals that I love. Defying gravity is possibly my all time favourite song so I've decided to sing that today, although I have yet to master the song. As this is a work in progress don't judge too harshly but I hope you enjoy my song for today.

 

 Ciao for now xx

a year ago today

Well, I'm almost at the end of my 'laying low and going slow' year and it's time to reflect.

A year ago today I was sobbing on the phone to my mother, living on the other side of the country, and totally, completely, undeniably alone. I didn't know how to deal with everything going wrong with my plans and I was ready to accept defeat. Needless to say, the happiest I'd been in months was this last week where I was busy every day sorting out my life so that I could move back to Perth. I was busy again, I was working towards something, I desperately wanted, and best of all I was getting out.

I was busy, I was working towards something I  desperately wanted, and best of all I was getting out. These were the same thoughts bouncing around in my brain 2 years earlier, while I was making plans to get out of Perth and escape to Melbourne, funny how much something can change in just 12 months.

This year, on the 10th of December I will be attending a super fancy champagne brunch with my work friends. Last year on the 10th of December I was boarding a plane from Melbourne to Perth and undeniably running away from my problems. I wouldn't say I'm any better at facing my problems this year then I was last year, but celebrating a good year with friends and champagne has got to be better than throwing in the towel after a miserable year and running home.

My accomplishments this year are a pretty sad sight. I've barely even managed to score over a credit on my units at uni. However that's exactly what I needed. I needed to lay low, heal, and grow. It was exhausting dealing with everything last year and it required a large amount of recovery time. So I kindly gave myself this year off, 2013 - the year of rest. 2014 the year of bouncing back!

It's almost time to welcome the new year and I think I'm more or less ready to welcome the new me. I hope I'm ready to push the boundaries and get back out into the world. So much has changed in the last 12 months and I am ready to make sure that in another 12 months I can say exactly the same thing. So much has changed, but hopefully this time - for the better.

Here's a little piece of  me singing where I was at last year - apart from the sexy lawyer telling me he loves me.. that, that I did not have.. Legally Blonde - from Legally Blonde The Musical. Couldn't be bothered actually filming a video for this one yet so.. enjoy the picture of me and my sister being super cool.

I dreamed a dream in times gone by

A blank page with a flashing cursor demanding words you haven't thought of yet. You'd think a woman who is able to hold countless conversations with herself in the shower and on her way to work would be able to come up with a few choice sentences to lay down on her blog. Apparently not.

I seriously need to get off my ass and exist again, but it just takes so much effort. It's possible that I have taken this year to hide rather than to heal. I may have slowly starting reaching back out to society but really my efforts are just pathetic. A couple of facts: Yes, I am extremely socially awkward. Yes, I can be extremely shy. Yes, I have gotten used to being a shutin and keeping to myself. No, I am not enjoying the life I have due to the previous facts.

This year has really been a very low level of excitement, with a few random peaks here and there. It seems that when I wanted exciting I went for it, and I went for it hard. I had my first drunken hook up, or rather my first drunken hook up with a stranger and not my ex. It was fun, he was cute.. but who the hell took over my body long enough for me to do that? Because the Maddy I know hides at home with a book or puts her foot in her mouth way before anything could progress past pleasantries to hooking up.

I am 20 years old now. I mean, shit. What. Yeah my brain turns to mush or turns off whenever I think of that. I don't feel 20.. I don't know whether my idea of 20 is correct but I'm definitely not it. But I am 20 now and I think it is time to start acting it. To grow up. I'm not a teenager anymore and feeling sorry for myself is pretty pathetic.

Anyway, yes I found my old blog and yes I'm writing about boring stuff because I have nothing exciting to write about - so I hereby challenge myself to live a life worth blogging about. Here goes, most likely, nothing.