christmas loot '14

Happy holidays! Christmas has come and gone and now, presents all unwrapped.. it's time to shop all those sales! .. see messy heap of bags in photo 1. No need to worry though, I didn't go very crazy, just picked up a few tops from h&m which hopefully will appear on here soon enough in the form of outfits and a simple but very versatile navy linen and black trousers from Uniqlo <-- GREAT for basics. But more about that some other time.

My parents were rather generous and I received from them all of the above as well as the book 'Letters of Note' by Shaun Usher which I am eagerly awaiting from the postman.

How were your Christmases?

p.s paddington bear is the most adorable film.

oh holiday

some kind of egg-y thing at sotto on west

It's Christmas! Or the school holidays at least, since last Thursday, but Christmas is happening soon too. That time of year were everyone talks about festivity and presents. Time gets a bit weird too. Minutes past very slowly, but days often blur into each other.

Two of my good friends are spending it overseas this year and they've just left, one of them flying over the pacific ocean right this moment. These holidays in particular are a bit of a weird groggy time. There is so much work to do, but also a lot of time to do it in. I have a few chapters of maths homework, a rather large number of essays to write and three major works to get well under way. Nothing I've started on yet but I have relative faith that I'll get it all done. fingers crossed.

The graduating class of '14 got their atars a few days ago, the numerical value of thirteen years of education has been assessed. Phwoar. That is certainly a lot to feel whether good or bad and it's almost unbelievable to think that I'll be getting the same thing in a year's time.

This is a pretty intense period of time, possibly the hardest months that I've gone through so far, but I'm still alive and kicking after the first exam block, and we'll see how this goes. Now that's it is the holidays, I'm going to try and enjoy myself at least a little and who knows, maybe post more than once in a blue moon. 

french toast and frankenstein

I was kinda bored in the afternoon the other day, and slightly peckish, so I was scrolling through the interwebs for the easiest possible thing to cook and eat, that would still actually taste ok. And I foudn Liv's recipe for french toast. I always through french toast was super hard and that only badasses who were fully self-actualised and always had actual, SUFFICIENT time in the morning for fulfilling and joyous breakfast-times everyday were capable of making it successfully, but apparently I'm wrong. It's actually shockingly not that difficult! You just beat a glug of milk, an egg, some cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and sugar to taste in a bowl, drop in a piece to bread and poke it around to make sure it absorbs everything, and then plop it in a pan, and then wait around for a few minutes. Not that hard! I was amazed at my own ability to not mess it up that I ate lots and was then so bloated for the rest of the day I didn't even have enough stomach space to shovel in some dinner. Until about 10pm right before bed when I got the goddarn nibbles again and ate a kinda weird tasting cranberry and nut bar (I never trust dried bits of fruit in otherwise perfectly good food items).

I also picked up the penguin classics edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but since being swamped with chemistry coursework, I'm only about 1/3 of the way through, and I'll refrain from casting any judgements until I reach the end.  

it's a wrap

VvV VV Vv orangey ambient lighting

Last Friday was the last test of my preliminary exams, which means year eleven is basically over. Walking out of the exam hall for the last time in the near future felt so freaking good you have no idea. We went to Max Brenner's afterwards and celebrated with chocolatey waffles and vanilla icecream.

But it's bittersweet, since in about four weeks time, year twelve officially starts, the year it all counts, the last year of high school. These four weeks are probably going to be a hazy limbo of teenage angst but transitions periods are probably necessary to acclimatize.

Social, which is a kind of dance/semi-formal (?) function thing which school holds in conjunction with our brother school, is happening in two weeks or so, so that's something to occupy my time. I've picked out most of what I need already, but there are still a few things I need to scavenge (lip liner!) and it's tremendous fun helping friends get ready too.

I'm going to try to spend this pseudo-break taking more photos with le CAMERA and less time waffling with low to moderate enjoyment in black holes on the internet. Wish me luck on that one. 

micellar cleansing water

My hand is well and truly flung up for the *who can't, and probably never will be able to, afford the Bioderma Crealine 'Micellaire' Water?*. If you can't either, Garnier's got yo' back.

Kind of.

I don't actually know how good of a dupe this product is, since I've never had the loose change (or you know; hefty hedge fund) required to step foot into a french pharmacy, or buy the thing with $$$ extra taxes and whatnot here in the isolated/lonely/semi-forgotten land that appears to be Australia, at least where beauty and skincare brands are concerned.

So I eyed this bottle and its 50 sisters/clones on the shelf shelf suspiciously, dubiously pondering "as if you phony." But then I realized how very not rich as I was (am) and decided what the heck, if this glorified water turns out effective IT WILL WORTH THE $12.

And it was.

Though it might be important to note that up until this point, I'd been stubbornly scraping off the BB cream + eyeliner off my face with baby wipes following the logic of 'if it's good enough for an infant butt, it should be good enough for my face'. I really don't know what kind of education I'm really getting, but that train of thought it sketchy and best, and this micellar water thing is definitely an improvement on that. 

getting cultured

 

Su Ning doing her lazy/moody all black erry-thang

Our little state gallery is quite an impressive, grand affair isn't it? There's something about big 'ol marble columns that really floats my boat, and it's a shame I don't visit more often!

I did today, and it was quite bloody fantastic. 

NSW's state collection is probably rather small in the scheme of things, but it's rather cosy and endearingly curated. Glossy oil-on-canvas Australian and European 16th, 19th and 20th century works were dominant pieces and with things like paintings, there's a real difference in effect seeing them in person. 

I'm a bit of a history geek, and it's fascinating (at least for me) to see paintings of Sydney way back when; before the CBD, before the industrial revolution, before all the towering office blocks and shopping extravaganzas. 

It's always important to know or at least be aware of the past, and I went away today just that bit more informed and/or 'cultured'. ^^

Me being me though, quickly became more than a little peckish and didn't quite make it to the more comtemporary side of the place, before having to rush off for food before fainting away from hunger. 

(not pictured: 2 foot-long subway sandwiches rapidly gobbled up in haste) 

And then, since we oh-so-conveniently happened to be in town anyway, why not try that nitrogen ice-cream place that's all hip and trendy right now. The concept is that basically, instead of using ice, or refrigerators or whatnot, the gelato is made on the spot with liquid nitrogen!

I had M&Ms cheesecake, and I have to say, there's nothing extraordinarily amazing about this particular 'type' of frozen diary dessert. But it WAS icecream and it was quite delicious, and was consumer quickly and gleefully. 

bit gimmicky but how novel!

summertime fruit

As much as I do love the wintertime so very much, there is one thing I always miss, which is of the the juicy berries, mangos and figs that only make their appearance for an unfortunately short amount of time in the summer. I was reminded of just how much I'm craving the sweet, juicy suckers just then as I was scrolling through my memory disk backlog.

If it's warm and sunny where you live, please do eat an extra one for yours truly! Now I've got to get back to hunting for a not-too-decrepit Antiquity 1 textbook on gumtree.

x Joyce 

sweaty limbs and happy hearts

travellers from all the way on the other side of the world ! 

look at that right maniacal loon

"wave and look popular or something !!" - Su Ning

Sometimes you just gotta take full advantage of those 'sunday funday' tickets and go on a mad little traipse round town. Cityrail has an annoying little habit of letting you down every so often, but that's partially redeemed by kindly allowing you to madly abuse all forms of transportation for a whole day for a measly $2.50, so it all evens out. Drag along a semi-willing friend and you have yourself a beaut of a day. 

Ferry-rides, potato stacks and gelato optional. 

x Joyce 

Eat, waste time, study, sleep, repeat

Title says it all really. All my life consists of right now is taking about two-three naps every day, wasting time on irrelevant wikipedia articles, studying a teeny-tiny amount, eating to reward self for aforementioned tiny about of productive-ness and then napping. I still have little to no idea of how to write essays. Help. 

p.s.

how glorious is the cross section of that burger? praise the deities. 

birthday

It's my birthday today !!

I'm turning sixteen this year, my first real 'growing-up' milestone birthday and it feels strange and exciting, a sort of tingly good weird. I worked out a lot of things about myself in the last year, who I want to be, what I want to do, and other little life epiphanies. I refocused, and set my sights on what I wanted, after figuring out what it was I actually wanted first, and now I'm working my way towards that. And it feels good. Really good. Especially since the year before, I've been listlessly, aimlessly just floating passing the time. The next two years are going to be pretty intense, with the hsc coming up (a sort of university extrance exam where I live) and I'm going to try my best to get to where I want to be. 

Alright, enough with the heavy stuff; so how did I spend my very first day of being sweet sixteen? I woke up this morning to my mum carrying a beautiful sight indeed, a little minty blue drawstring bag (have you guessed what it is yet?) that's right ! A tiffany's bag. Man oh man. I'm a lucky girl. Inside this lovely little package was a silver tiffany bean necklace. I blearily opened one eye (having stayed up late reading another amazing gift, Mindy Kaling's hilarious 'Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and other concerns') but just about leapt out of bed when I saw the reason I was getting awoken. I prompted clasped it around my neck and am never-ever-ever taking it off. 

The rest of the day was spent (as birthdays should be) eating yummy food (the house dip at three williams is seriously good), and exploring the myriad of colourful organic produce and fresh flowers at Eveleigh Markets. I FOUND KALE Y'ALL!! They taste somewhat like seaweed! (in baked chip form anyway). 

As I'm typing this out, full of chocolate mousse cake and love, I'm feeling pretty darn grateful. Going to bed now, mum's high school friend from France is visiting tomorrow! 

x

looking slightly dazed from smiling into the sun