Ciao,
I know I'm late with this post but it's taken me a while to know exactly it is I wanted to write about. I thought about writing a what I got for Christmas post, a New Years resolution post or a 2013 recap but nothing felt right to me and so this post has remained unwritten. I decided that instead of following some sort of blog tradition at this time of year I would instead write what felt natural to me. This thinking has also helped me in regards to my own blogs identity, my blog is now a year old as of 12th December and this date went by without me marking it in any written way, mostly because I wasn't really sure what I wanted my blog to be and 'celebrating' a bloggerversary seemed false. I started this blog with the intention of documenting my year abroad and when this changed I wasn't really sure what to write about. I've now come to the conclusion that my blog is exactly that, my blog. It is here for me to write about whatever I want to, whatever I deem important and whatever I want to be able to look back at in the future. I have always believed that in life you should write your own rules; doing things differently is not always wrong and no one thing is ever going to work for everybody. So without further ado...
Christmas 2013:
Christmas is normally a very magical time of the year for me and has been since I was little but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that this year it was much more difficult to find my Christmas spirit and excitement. It's been a tough year that I could never have been prepared for and the last few months have been the worst. Despite finding it difficult to find my Christmas spirit I actually had a nice Christmas, I saw and spent a lot of time with my family, gave and received lovely gifts and ate a lot and drank even more much to my livers dismay!
So what did I actually get for Christmas? Well I was a very lucky girl.
I received:
- 3 new Pandora charms
- A Red Herring rucksack
- Hugo Boss Deep Red Perfume & Paco Rabbane Lady Million Perfume
- An Indian Night Jasmine Perfume and body lotion from the body shop
- A slanket which is the softest thing ever
- A bluetooth keyboard for my iPad
- 2 sets of long sleeved PJ's
- 2 Rimmel Space Dust nail polishes
- Despicable Me nail transfers (awesome Secret Santa)
- A personalised phone case
- Purple hat and scarf
- Pearl ring
- The Real Techniques Core Collection and Starter Kit
- Makeup brush case
- A ticket to see JLS
- Rimmel Scandaleyes Mascara
- An umbrella
- Lots of chocolates
- Money
- A lottery ticket (I didn't win)
During Christmas I spent a lot of time with my family and friends which was lovely but I started to get some bad pain with my wisdom teeth. I put up with the pain for about 3 days with no pain killers as I was doing a lot of drinking and didn't want to risk an alcohol and pain killer cocktail but after 3 days I gave in and booked an emergency dental appointment which brings us to...
New Years Eve 2013:
This was a fairly boring New Years Eve for me especially compared to the one I had planned because I ended up being given anti-biotics for the swelling in my mouth which I am still taking now and so obviously I wasn't allowed to drink. I ended up staying in with my parents, sister, best friend and my parents close friends. We ordered a Chinese, played Rummikub and watched the fireworks at 12 followed by hours of Jools Holland's Hootenanny! Again I found it hard to be excited, 2013 was a particularly crappy year for me in many respects and I found it nigh on impossible to find any enthusiasm for 2014. Normally when you have a crappy year you're excited for the 'new start' that a new year supposedly brings, you get to leave the bad stuff in the last year and move on. But unfortunately for me and my family we can't leave cancer in 2013, it's tagging along for 2014 and most likely every year for many years to come. I have many things to look forward to in 2014, I'm hopefully going to pass my driving test, get a car, turn 22, watch Drake for a third time, go to Turkey on a group holiday and start my final year at university and for now these are the things I am focusing on for 2014.
Resolutions:
I'm not the greatest believer in New Years Resolutions, for one thing how many of us actually stick to them? There are many things I'd like to improve upon in my life and many things I'd like to learn as opposed to things I'd like to change. I also think that life is about setting yourself goals for the short term as well as the long term, if I have learnt anything in the past year it is that life gets in the way of your plans. Things like cancer happen and suddenly your 5 year life plan is all of kilter and you end up feeling very very lost. So I am setting myself short term aims and may even post each month with my newest aims but don't hold me to that.
January aims:
Pass my driving test
To start my fitness & weight loss journey
To blog more
Life is short and very unpredictable
University life doesn't suit me; I need routine.
That happiness is not a destination, it is a way of life.
This has ended up being a fairly long post but one I feel I needed to write, it has helped me to clarify all the thoughts I've been having the past few weeks and put them all into what I hope is a coherent format.
Happy New Year!
Ciao for now...
