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Saturday, August 26, 2017

Birthday Presents!


Hey, everyone!

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that last Saturday night I had my 18th birthday party. It was a great night with lots of laughs and a little bit of alcohol. There was cake, fairy lights, and of course, presents! I would love to share with you what I received. I’d also like to point out that I’m not trying to show off, just that I thought you’d like to know.


From my family, I got a whole array of things. My grandparents on my dad’s side had collected lots and lots of pictures from the first two years of my life and put them into an album. I almost cried when I opened it and have cried every time I’ve looked through it. I’m quite an emotional person, I guess. Grandma also said that this is only one part of the present as there is another bit they still have to get; I can’t wait to see what it is.


My mum’s family got me a lovely pair of white Swarovski earrings and I love them a lot! My dad’s cousin also got me Swarovski earrings, but luckily, they’re not the same colour so it’s okay. They are little ones as I am small so they’ll look normal size anyway. Also, they were cheaper than the bigger ones. I didn’t expect to get even one pair of Swarovski earrings, so two is absolutely amazing!


My dad’s auntie got me a purse and a bag. They are very nice and I like them a lot. My old purse was falling apart and barely fit in my bag, so the new purse was definitely needed. And who doesn’t love a new handbag, am I right?


From my friends, I received a lot of things, and I love them all. One of them got me a book called Carnivalesque by Neil Jordan. I talked about it in one of my birthday wishes posts so you can find out more about it there. Basically, a boy gets trapped in a mirror in the hall of mirrors and his reflection takes his place in the real world. This same friend also got me a plush Hedwig, as we both have quite an intense love for all things Harry Potter. The final thing she got me was a lamp with a forest pattern on the outside of it.


From another one of my friends, I received special rocks made in Kenya. She said that they are wishing rocks, or give you luck or something like that. I think they’re really cool. Plus, all proceeds from buying them go back to the Kenyan community that made them. She also got me a nice little necklace with a red pendant that I like a lot. Another thing she got me was a box of Lush things. It’s the Having a Blast box, which contains a Pink Flamingo reusable bubble bar and a Rub Rub Rub shower scrub. I’m really excited to use these when I have baths in the near future when I’m stressed about assessments.


Another one of my friends got me a mug and tray set from a collection done by artists. Words on the tray and mug say “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you have imagined.” She has always had a thing for things with quotes on, and the little birds are just so cute! She also got me some lovely little bobby pins with pearly flowers on the ends. These will be very useful for my annoying flyaway hair, and also for decorating my hair as well.


Another friend got me some face things that have the scent of Pink Grapefruit. There is a cleanser, a moisturiser, and a lip balm. I will get onto using these once I run out of my current skin care things. I can’t wait!


From the one male friend I have, I got a Revlon Matte Balm in the shade Fiery Flamboyante, Sinful Colours nail polish from the Kylie Jenner collection (or should I say kollection?) in the shade I Klove You, and a necklace with a giant star pendant. For a guy, I don’t think he did too bad, but I don’t think I’ll wear the necklace. It reaches my belly button! Also, I’m not particularly a fan of the Kardashian Jenners, but I’ll try out the nail polish and see if I like it.


Another one of my friends got me some nice little flower earrings. I really like them since I’m a big fan of flowers and also of silver. I like that they’re not too big as I also am not too big. Yay!


The final present I opened that night was a fairly hefty birthday card. There was a button you could press that would shoot out confetti from the top and also made music. There was also I little bit of paper in there. Thinking it was a receipt, I flipped it over to check and saw that it was a ticket to see Dean Lewis in December! I’m so excited. I’m going with my three best friends in the whole world and I love his music, so I really can’t wait!

Do you like my presents? I love them. What did you get for your last birthday?


Love, Nicky x

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Let's Get Personal Blogger Tag



Hey everyone!

I was tagged a little while ago by the wonderful Emily from That Weird Girl Life to do the Blogger Tag. I’ve done two Liebster Awards in the past so I’m excited to answer some more questions. Thanks Emily for tagging me!

Here are the rules:

   1.       Answer the eleven questions your tagger has asked.
   2.       Nominate eleven other bloggers – all with below 200 followers.
   3.       Give your nominees eleven questions for them to answer.
   4.       Make sure to let them know you’ve nominated them.

On with the questions!

When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was little (I still am quite young, only being 18 and all), I wanted to be a pet store owner. I loved (and still love) little animals like bunnies, kitties and puppies and I thought it would be just lovely to surrounded by them at all times. At that point, I’d never had a pet before or even been in a pet shop. After adopting my cat, Stanley, and smelling all the smells in a pet store, I decided that it would be much better to be something not animal related. I didn’t know what, since I was only about ten, but yeah.

What time of day do you do your blogging? Do you usually work in the daytime or are you a night owl?

I usually do blogging during the day time. Right now, for instance, it’s midday. Sometimes I do blog in the night time if I am doing it very last minute.

If you could only eat one candy or chocolate for the rest of your life, what would it be?

It would have to be Maltesers, wouldn’t it? I can live without having any of the others, but Maltesers would have to stay.

What is your go to movie to watch when you're feeling sad or upset?

My go to movie/s in general is Harry Potter, but that can take DAYS to finish. Other than that, Disney movies are my jam. My favourites are Tangled, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.

Has there been a book that has changed your life?

Does Harry Potter count? I don’t know what my life would be like without reading Harry Potter. I don’t know exactly how it has changed my life, but believing in magic is fun!

Which Disney movie scared you the most as a kid?

Even though above I said that Aladdin is one of my favourite Disney movies, the cave of wonders rising out of the sand and the Jafar scene at the end was the scariest thing in the world.

What is the hardest thing for you about blogging?

The hardest thing about blogging for me is coming up with ideas for blog posts. This would be completely fine (since mostly I do think one up for the end of the week) except that I also have to come up with ideas for uni assignments and homework. I often find myself googling for those “100 blog post ideas” posts and end up finding at least one idea I can work with.

If you had to recommend one musician/band that everyone should listen to, who would it be?

If you don’t listen to or at least know one song by Shawn Mendes, I don’t know if I can be friends with you. I just love him so much. His music, I absolutely love. I don’t have enough money to go see him in November (which is when he’s coming to Brisbane), but I do love him and his music a whole lot and would highly recommend his music to you.

If you could sit down and chat with any fictional character (from a book, movie. or TV) who would it be? And what would you talk about?

I would love to sit down and have coffee, little tea cakes and a chat with Minerva McGonagall, the Transfiguration professor from Harry Potter. I feel like she’d have loads of epic stories from the time of the Marauders and Harry’s time. Also, I just think that she would be really interesting to talk and listen to.

What is something that no matter what, always makes you laugh?

One thing that will always make me laugh is my friends. We always take conversations way too far and die laughing afterwards. One time, we were talking about how two of us had allergies, then me and the other allergy free friend said we would probably die if a fast bus hit us, so now we say we’re allergic to fast buses. We couldn’t stop laughing for at least the next five minutes.

And if you had to pick: cake or pie?

I eat more cake than I do pie, but pie can be sweet or savoury. BUT there are plenty of other savoury non-pie things that I enjoy. So I think I’ll go with cake, purely because I love cake so much. Ohhhh but cottage pie is so gooooood. Oh I don’t know…. Cake. I’m going to lock in cake.

And now for the nominations *dramatic music intensifies*:

Sarah: @sbysparkle
Beth: @bethxkate
Yasmin: @rebel_noir
Róisín: @totally_ro
Chloe: @chl0allen
Emma: @emmaboughtwhat
Hannah: @hannahnele_
Katie: @katieyvonne_x
Loren: @lorenxalicia

And finally, the questions the Lucky Eleven™ must answer:
   1.       What is one thing you’ve done recently that you are proud of?
   2.       What is your favourite song or songs of all time?
   3.       Pick a superpower to have.
   4.       What is something you have tried but never wish to do again?
   5.       If you could have dinner with someone, living or dead, who would it be? And what would the dinner conversation be?
   6.       Have you ever fallen in love?
   7.       Would you rather skydive or bungee jump?
   8.       What is your favourite thing about where you live?
   9.       If you could only use one kind of makeup for the rest of your life (ie. Lipstick, mascara, foundation, etc.), what would you choose?
   10.   What is your biggest pet peeve?
   11.   And finally: pancakes or waffles?

That’s it! That’s the blogger tag! If you’re nominated, I hope you have fun with the questions I’ve written. Let me know if you do it so I can have a read!

Love, Nicky x

Saturday, August 12, 2017

I Turned Eighteen!


Hey everyone!

Since we last spoke, I have had a birthday. I turned eighteen! I am so very excited! I can now legally drink alcohol, smoke (not that I will, obviously), vote, and be called an adult. There’s probably a bunch more things that come with turning eighteen, too, but those are the major ones I think.

So, my birthday “started” on the 6th of August, since Dad couldn’t come to a birthday dinner on my actual birthday due to his work. I woke up on the Sunday and went out with Mum to pick up a cake. We chose a pink one that said it was strawberry flavour. It wasn’t very big, but it didn’t have to be. There are only four of us, after all. We came home, set up the cake with eighteen candles (a mean feat for a small cake!), and went out the back to celebrate. Mum, Dad, and Will sang me Happy Birthday and I cut the cake and made a wish. We then ate some cake while I eyed up the big box with blue-green wrapping and a big pink ribbon tied round it that was sitting in the centre of the table.


After cake, I reached for the box with both hands. Once it was sitting in front of me, I held both ends of the ribbon, only just having enough arm length to undo it in one motion. Then I read the card, and it was nice and lovely. There’s a little girl in a fairy costume on the front, and when I was little I wanted to be a fairy, so that was special to me. I then went ham uwrapping the box, tearing at every bit I could, catching glimpses of what was inside. It was a bright orange box, with a white Nike logo on it. Oh no, I thought (and said), Mum’s got me running shoes for my birthday. I kept unwrapping, really hoping it wasn’t running shoes (I’m about to get back into running, but I’m not that keen, you know?). Opening the shoe box, I saw gold tissue paper. I pulled the tissue paper back to reveal the shoes I have been wanting for about three years. Wedge. Trainers.


I picked them up, careful not to put them on the table (bad luck!), and looked at them in awe. Then I noticed that there was some of the tissue paper in one of the shoes. Mum must’ve stuffed some in one and not the other. Silly Mum! I pulled at it, trying to get it out but it was stuck. There was a little white box wrapped up in the paper, stuffed inside the shoe. Inside said box were some rose gold earrings. Long-time readers will know that I am absolutely obsessed with anything rose gold, so I was very much ecstatic when I laid my eyes on these. I got up and hugged and kissed Mum immediately. Considering I didn’t know what to expect since I forgot to give her a list, I think Mum did very well. I am very happy with my presents and they will no doubt feature in an upcoming favourites post.

You may think that is the end, but alas! It is not. The next day (August 7th) was my actual birthday.

Dad woke me up at exactly 7:39am – the time I was born into the world 18 years ago – to wish me a happy birthday. I then swiftly rolled over and went back to sleep. I got up at about 10:30 and had some breakfast (leftover cake from the day before). Throughout the day, some extended family called and texted me, wishing me a happy birthday. Then came 2 o’clock: time to leave for uni. I picked up my bag and walked down the road to the bus stop, caught my bus and was off. I walked up the enormous hill my uni was built on (what a great idea. They should build more things on hills. That won’t annoy anyone.) and to my lecture hall. Amazingly, I was twenty minutes early, so I sat outside and waited for my uni peeps to show up.

Only they didn’t.

It turns out our lecturer was sick that day, but I hadn’t thought to check my emails till then. Fan-bloody-tastic. So I was straight back down the hill of death and onto the very next bus. Packed with school kids. Fun times! I love catching buses with school kids! Could my birthday get any worse?


No would be the answer to that. The rest of the day was lovely. Mum, Will, and I walked down to a local burger place and had some burgers for my birthday dinner. They were great burgers, just saying. Also, since it was my birthday, Mum and I had some alcoholic beverages with our dinner. Mine was called a Redskin, and I cannot for the life of me remember what was in it, but it was fruity and delicious! Mum had an Espresso martini and I had a sip and it was awful. I’m not particularly a coffee drinker, though. She, a very regular coffee drinker, also said it wasn’t great, but powered through anyway. We then walked back home, making jokes about how drunk we were (we weren’t, we’d had one drink each) and having a good laugh.

And that was how I celebrated my birthday, burgers, cocktails, and plenty of laughs.


Love, Nicky x

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Short Story | Night Terrors

Hey everyone!

I wrote a story a little while back for uni, and I realised that I never shared it with you. It is a bit long (around 2000 words), and I am quite proud of it (I got 78% for it, in case you were wondering).


It was a cold, rainy night in Roseby. Celeste Miller was driving home from work, and had picked up her mother from the train station on the way.

“How was your day, Mum?” she asked once her mother had sat down and dried herself off.

“Alright, not too many customers today. You?”

“Yeah, good. There was a lady who came in today with her Shih Tzu, who then peed all over the head nurse’s desk,” she said with a slight laugh. It was hard to laugh with this kind of weather. It had been raining heavily like this for at least three days, though it started drizzling about a week ago.

They kept chatting, Celeste keeping her eyes on the road, squinting to see where she was going. The road was slick and slippery with water, and as close to flooded at it could get. Celeste was driving as carefully as she could. Celeste’s mum had said that Roseby hadn’t flooded since 1984, when she was a little girl.

Out of nowhere, a car slid out in front of them. Bright headlights shone through the darkness. Celeste slammed her foot on the brake pedal. Their car careered into the path of the other car. Celeste watched the other car, almost in slow motion. It rammed into the passenger side of the car. The passenger door forced against her mother’s rib cage, puncturing her lungs. She heard every bone break. Every single one. Blood spilled out of her mother’s mouth. Her mother was dead. Dead. In between her quick pants for air, Celeste found herself screaming, punctuating the otherwise dreary, abysmal Roseby night.

*

She woke up in a cold sweat, her breaths still coming out in rapid, short gasps. Her heart was racing and she was losing control, clutching onto her bedsheets for even an ounce of support. The world was closing in around her. Her bedroom door slammed open. Someone was running over to her. She blacked out.

“Celeste,” her mother said calmly, gently shaking her awake, “Cece, wake up.”

“It happened again,” Celeste said once she had woken up, and pulled herself into a sitting position, still in her bed. Warm and safe. She took a sigh of relief and pulled her mum into a tight hug.

“I know,” her mother replied, pulling back from the hug, still rubbing her daughter’s shoulders, “I ran in just as you blacked out. I think you have got a therapy session next Tuesday, so you can talk to Dr. Osment about it then.”

She nodded, now considerably calmer since her panic attack. Her mum was still alive and well. 

Everything was fine. Her breathing and heartbeat had slowed back to normal. Looking out her window, toward the ocean, she saw some rain clouds on the horizon, threatening a slight downpour.

Mental note: take an umbrella today,” she thought to herself, before pulling herself out of bed to get ready for the day.
*

“How… to… meditate, and search,” Celeste mumbled as she typed the words into Google as soon as she got home. Dr. Osment had recommended her to meditate before bed to clear her mind so she didn’t get nightmares anymore. Hundreds upon hundreds of results came up for meditation classes, but after looking through a few of them, she found that they were all far too expensive to have daily sessions, and she would rather stay at home. Her anxiety and panic disorder also meant that she was never really a fan of doing things out of her comfort zone, which was mainly her house, Dr. Osment’s office, and her work. She ended up downloading a free mediation app onto her phone, and set it to notify her just before bed so she could go straight to sleep afterward.

“Celeste! Tea’s ready!” her mother called from the kitchen downstairs.

“Okay, coming Mum!”

They sat in the living room to drink their vanilla tea, on the plush pink couch, watching a pre-recorded episode of Masterchef.

“I downloaded a meditation app just now,” Celeste said between sips of tea.

“That’s good, dear. I hope it works!” she said, grinning at her, “Who do you think is going to win? Personally, I think Jake’s ganache was a bit better than the rest.”

After speculating with her mother about Masterchef, Celeste looked out the bay window towards the ocean, the waves being pummelled by the rain. The intense and dramatic music playing behind Masterchef seemed fitting. The full moon peeked through the dark clouds, watching over Roseby dutifully like a guardian angel.

“Celeste?” her mother said, tapping her on the shoulder.

“Yeah, Mum?” Celeste said, shifting her attention away from the window.

“Sorry, you weren’t responding. Would you like some more tea?” she asked, gesturing to the tea pot on the coffee table beside her.

“No, thanks,” she said, getting up from the couch, “I have work in the morning. I wanna give my new meditation app a try.”

She padded up the carpeted stairs to her room and sat down on her bed, laying against her well-cultivated pillow farm. After sticking her earbuds into her ears, she pressed play on the recording and followed its instructions.

“Breathe in through your nose, 2, 3, 4, and out through your mouth, 2, 3, 4,” a calm, soothing voice instructed for around ten minutes.

As the session came to an end, Celeste did feel a lot calmer than before. Her mind wasn’t whirring as much as it normally did. She woke up the next morning refreshed and relaxed, despite her 6 o’clock alarm.

Rolling out of bed, she lumbered down to the kitchen for a breakfast of cereal and a tea. Dr. Osment had instructed her to stay away from anything with caffeine, so tea it was. While having breakfast, she noticed that it was still rainy, even after a solid week of rain.

The drive to work that day was normal; a bit of rain was no harm. She dropped her mother off at the train station and continued driving to the veterinary surgery just a bit further away. As she was only new, she could only help with the basic nursing jobs. She wished she could partake in the actual surgeries, but it was just general check-ups for now.

“Hey, Tammy, how’re things?” Celeste said, as she opened the door to the locker room to put her bag and umbrella away.

“Hi, Cece. Good! We have a few check-ups booked in today, so you can help me out with those.”

“Okay, dogs? Cats? Birds? Fish?” she inquired with a laugh.

Eight o’clock rolled around and it was time to open up for the day. First in was a dad with a cat who had a swollen paw. Then there was a dog who peed all over Tammy’s desk.

Just like in my nightmares,” she thought, “No, just a coincidence.”

During her lunch break, she noticed that the rain had gotten significantly heavier than it was this morning. Tammy had asked her to stay back a little later than usual; Reynold couldn’t make it in today since he was sick.

By the time of closing up the vet, Celeste had severely weirded herself out about the whole raining and dog peeing on Tammy’s desk conundrum.

“You’ll be fine, Celeste. Everything is going to be okay. You’re going home. You’ll be warm, dry, and your mum will be alive.”

Right after her little internal pep talk, her phone buzzed. The caller ID said Mum, with a little purple heart next to it. She picked it up immediately.

“Hello?”

“Hi sweetie. Could you pick me up from the station today? Since you stayed back at work and I don’t fancy walking in the rain,” her mum said, sounds of the train in the background.

“And it will be nice to talk to someone on the way home, too. What time will your train arrive?”

“I’ve just passed Morello Hills, so I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”

They ended their conversation and Celeste ran to her car with her hands over her head. It was too short of a distance to bother putting up an umbrella, but by the time she reached her car she wished she had.

The drive to the train station was short, so Celeste had another fifteen minutes to wait before her mum arrived. The whole time, she couldn’t stop thinking about her recurring nightmares of her mother dying horribly in a car crash, on a rainy night, in which that day a dog had peed on a desk. 

That minute detail is what scared her the most. Why did Reynold have to be sick? Why did the dog have to pee on the table today? Why not another day? Why, oh why, did it have to be raining?

She had worked herself up into such a state that she had to use the breathing techniques she learned last night to cope.

“Breathe in, 2, 3, 4, breathe out, 2, 3, 4,” she repeated, breathing in time, until her breathing slowed back to a normal pace.

She watched as her mother’s train pulled in to the station, and waved to her mum as she got off. She felt her heart rate picking up as her mum walked closer to the car. The closer she got, the higher her heart rate went, until she thought she was going to explode. She tried to use her breathing techniques and they worked for a bit, but not enough to completely calm her down. She knew that car was going to jut out when she least expected it. She knew exactly the words her mother would say the entire way. She knew her mother was going to die tonight. And it was going to be her fault.

She tentatively reached over the passenger seat to unlock the door for her mother, who was now waiting to cross the road. She almost had the urge to drive away then and there, and save her mother from a fate only Celeste knew of. But she didn’t, because she had promised her mother she would pick her up from the train station after work, and it was the right thing to do.

She watched as her mother quickly crossed the road, reaching for the door handle as she got closer. 

She pulled the door open hurriedly and closed her umbrella, sitting down in the passenger seat and closing the door behind her.

“Thanks for waiting for me, sweetie. I’m sorry that the train was a bit late.”

“That’s okay, mum. I don’t mind.”

“Jeez,” her mum began, “we haven’t had this kind of rain since 1984, I must have been about ten when our house was flooded.”

“No.”

“Wow, that’s a long time ago,” Celeste said cheekily, earning a playful jab in the ribs from her 
mother, “Anyway, how was your day at work today, Mum?”

“Alright, not too many customers today. You?”

“No.”

They kept chatting. The road was glossy with water, eerily similar to her nightmare.

“No.”

She drove as carefully as she could, squinting through the torrential rain.

“No.”

Suddenly she saw two bright headlights slide into her vision.

“No.”

She slammed on the brakes and squeezed her eyes shut.

“No, no, no, no, no, no!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, did you like it? I hope you did, I worked very hard on it!

Love, Nicky x

PS: It’s my birthday on Monday and I am really really really excited!