What I'm Reading This Winter

Hello dear readers, how are you all feeling today? I've been having a pretty good holiday so far - been shopping, went to see the Minions movie with my friend, been working on getting my etsy store up and running, and have been thinking up ideas for Camp NaNoWriMo in July. All in all, it's actually been pretty busy. And in other news, I'm excited for tomorrow because I'm going out for a lovely birthday lunch with a friend!

Anyway, I can't say enough how great it is to be on holidays until August. University is really tough, but you've got to admit, it makes up for it with all the breaks we get! Over the semester, I find that I don't get a lot of time for recreational reading. The books I want to read for my own enjoyment get pushed back by mountains of journal articles and textbooks, so these holidays I'm going to try and focus a good amount of my time off to progressing through my reading list. The three things currently at the top of this list are...

1. A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

I have been meaning to read this books for YEARS now, but it's just one of those things I've never gotten around to.

2. The July/August issue of Frankie

Who doesn't love Frankie?!

3. The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton

This is a book my mum got me a couple of months ago. I have already started reading it, and it's pretty good so far, but I plan to finish it over these holidays.

As you can see, even Storm is interested in reading with me! Let me know what books/reading material you would recommend, or what books you are reading at the moment!

On Learning Dutch

My family on my father's side are all from the Netherlands, and for the last few years I have been really wanting to learn Dutch, but just haven't truly summoned the courage until recently. When we lived in the UK, we visited Holland several times, and I don't remember a lot of what we got up to, but the memories I do have are fond ones - going to the cheese market in Gouda, visiting historic sites, eating sooo many Stroopwafels and Speculaas... I would really love to be able to go back again someday, and be able to speak the language as well.

Resources I am using to learn Dutch:

• Duo Lingo - a lot of you probably know about this site already, but in case you don't, you can go on, create an account, and learn a whole variety of languages for free! I'm currently using it for Dutch and German.
• Future Learn - I'm currently taking part in a (free) 3 week Dutch course, which has been really helping out my speaking skills. It's not quite the same as being able to learn face-to-face, but it's giving me a good start, especially on pronunciation and day-to-day language skills.
• Quizlet - This place is a lifesaver for learning vocabulary! Whether you make your own flashcards, or search for sets that others have made, it has had great benefits for me.

Of course, there are many other resources you can use, the ones I listed are simply the ones I have found to be the most useful, informative, and easy to use.

Now, I'll be honest with you - after learning German for 6+ years, trying to learn Dutch is very hard, and I get the two languages mixed up A LOT! As one might imagine, this does admittedly, lead to some rather awkward situations. However, I also find the similarities between the two languages to be helpful, and I think that already knowing so much German helped me learn words and grammar faster as well.

I have such a great passion for learning languages, and although my schedule is going to be busy next semester with university, my friend and I are looking to do a class or two in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). So, we'll see how that turns out, and hopefully it will be much harder to mix up with the other languages I'm taking!

Apologies for the shorter post today, I've been a little short on time recently what with studying for exams and all, but my last exam is this wednesday, so things will be back to normal soon!

How I Was Productive On My Day Off

This week is one I have been dreading since the start of semester - the week of the statistics midterm. It's not that I don't enjoy statistics, because, as surprising as it may sound, I do I really like analysing things and finding out what's significant and what's not, what I don't enjoy is the 4 tedious hours of class every week, the exam, and the midterm test. Our test goes for 2 hours and for this test we are using the oh-so-lovely-and-simple SPSS (that one was sarcasm) (previously our tests have only been paper-based, and assignments were SPSS based). However, in saying all of that there is something good that comes of of statistics midterm week - no stats lecture!, which for me means I get an extra day off!

After an hour of getting up and procrastinating I decided to tackle my to do list for the day (note: my bullet journal in the photo below is looking much improved since I first started it). 

Despite the cold weather, I simply wasn't in the mood for tea today, so I decided to prepare myself some strawberry water in this cute little jar cup I got a few days ago (actually I got a whole set, but the others are currently storing stationery on my shelves). I know the whole putting-fruit-and-veggies-in-water thing has been a really big thing lately, but it's not as overrated as you might think. Until the start of this year, for me, it had become one of those things that you mean to try out someday, but never do. But one day I watched my friend drinking some one day and got jealous at how delicious it looked, so I made some for myself when I got home that night, and haven't looked back since!

I spent the morning working on my essay for sports psychology (and finally reached the word count!), took a break for lunch, and then came back to my desk to get my readings for the week done.

I successfully ticked everything in my bullet journal off for today, which I'm really happy with. I'm going to try and force myself to take the evening off doing study, and just relax a bit, play some games, maybe watch a few episodes of Dance Academy or Young Dracula (hehehe). I must say I'm rather proud of my efforts today, and I hope this post has inspired you at least a little to make good use of your days off.

Cake Decorating

Ever since my friend and I were in year 12 together way back in 2013, we have wanted to open a bakery together. In our form group at school we made cakes for everyone's birthdays, and decorated them all individually. Looking back now, some of the cakes probably looked rather average, but you have to start somewhere right? Recently I have been getting back into using fondant to decorate my cakes and when I was over in New Zealand over easter this year my aunt taught me a whole heap of new fondant and cake-making skills.

The image below is of a selection of the tools I use to decorate the fondant cakes. The rolling pin and the pink knife were presents for my mother's birthday, and everything else has been a really worthwhile investment.

These two cakes are from when I was over with my aunt. Although I know I still need to work on my writing icing skills (the cake on the left) I'm pretty happy with how it turned out overall.

The cake below is from just after we arrived home and I was teaching my mother and sister how to decorate with fondant. We used all the tools and actually had a lot of fun.

My friend and I are hoping to keep on improving our skills in the hope that one day in amongst our music (her) and psychology (me) work that we will be able to buy some land and set up the bakery we've been dreaming of. And as corny as that all sounds, I'm really looking forward to it!

A Trip to The Shire

I've always loved fantasy stories - they're enchanting, and they take you to a completely different world filled with magic, and fantastical creatures, and beautiful dresses. Last Saturday my family and I were lucky enough to get to visit one such world - Hobbiton, the place where all the Shire scenes from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed. I have been a fan of The Lord of the Rings since my family first moved to Australia 8 years ago, so it was quite an exciting trip to make. In fact, the first time I watched the films was on the 24 hour plane trip over here from London.  It was a really awesome experience, and kinda neat that it was filmed there since my mum grew up in that area.

I've never been on a fantasy film set before, so this trip was truly something different to anything I had ever previously experienced. It makes me really want to get back into acting again!

Keep scrolling for my photo tour of Hobbiton...

The tour begins at Gandalf's Cutting, which is where you see Gandalf and Frodo ride in the cart at the beginning of the first film.

My sister standing outside a Hobbit hole.

The gardeners do a wonderful job of looking after the gardens, and keeping them beautiful for the copious amounts of people who walk through Hobbiton every day.

The Party Tree where Bilbo celebrates his birthday.

My sister and I outside a Hobbit hole.

A stunning view of part of Hobbiton. The building across the other side of the river is the Green Dragon where you can get ciders, beers, and ginger beers. I choose to have a cider, which tasted rather nice.

Bilbo Baggins' home.

The attention to detail was simply spectacular. Every single Hobbit hole is different, and many of them have little outdoor displays as well. The one in the photo above is a cheesemaker Hobbit's home, but there were others as well including bread baking and painting.

Sam's home.

My sister and I.

The Green Dragon.

I hope you enjoyed this photo tour of Hobbiton. I'm not saying anything more on my trip than this because I don't want to spoil every surprise! If you're ever in the area, I would definitely recommend that you visit!