My Visa Application Interview Adventure


So yesterday I went to Canberra for my Visa Application Interview for my upcoming Europe trip :)

The day started early, I woke up at 6:30am to the sound of my beeping (and very, very loud) alarm clock and then proceeded to go back to sleep for another 15 minutes. (Yes I know, I'm such a rebel!)
Dad and I left at 7:30.

My appointment was for 1pm and we got to Canberra at 9:15, which meant I had some time to kill while dad went to his business meetings. I made my way to Belconnen (Westfield) Mall and found a fantastic little coffee shop called 'Raw Sugar'. I was greeted at the counter by a very happy barista, who made me a DELICIOUS Mocha and some yummy toasted banana bread (My two favourite cafe snacks). I spent the next hour and a half looking at hostels in Venice, Rome and Paris. Even though it took me ages to find hostels within our tiny, tiny budget I had a lot of fun.

When dad was done at his meeing we went to the City Centre, where we spend a few hours in the apple store at the mall. I bought myself a lifeproof phone case, the guy at JB HiFi gave me a great deal and took $30 off the price! So instead of paying $95 I only had to pay $65, which is actually super cheap for something that's waterproof and shatterproof (the perfect iphone case for a clumsy person like me who has already shattered her phone multiple times).

Before I knew it, it was time for the Visa interview. I made my way nervously to the building after scoffing down 6 McDonald's chicken nuggets as I went. I sat in the waiting room looking over my documents to make sure I had everything before a security guard came and took me to a womans office. And to my surprise her first words to me were: "You know you don't need a visa for this kind of trip," I sat there shocked for a few seconds. She went on to explain that only people with a criminal record get a visa for a holiday. And seeing as I don't have one of those, I don't need a visa.

After my very short interview I walked down the street to a convenience store, where I purchased a bus ticket. Now that makes it sound like I knew where I was going but in actual fact I had to ask three perfect strangers how to get to the store. I'm not great with navigation. I hopped on the bus to Belconnen with a bunch of other people, including a philipino lady and her child that proceeded to scream the entire way!!! I wasn't sure which stop to get off, so with my excellent problem solving skills I got google maps out on my phone so that I could see when I was there. But I didn't really trust myself to get off at the right place so I asked the guy behind me if he knew which stop I should get off. It turned out that he was geting off at Westfield Mall too, so that was lucky. He then proceeded to tell me all about how he and all his rich friends (his words not mine) drove around in expensive cars, he told me why he was taking the bus and how he'd lost his license for driving stoned and how he loved travel and  how when I go to Paris I need to "keep it in my pants, the parties are wild."

Moral of the story... do your research and make sure you actually NEED a Visa before you spend $288 and take a whole day off work. Haha

In the end I actually had a fantastic day hanging out with dad, drinking coffee, learning about the Canberra bus system and meeting interesting people. And it turns out my money can be refunded too, so it wasn't really a waste of a day.                

SHORT HAIR


As most of you know, I’ve recently had a pretty dramatic change in hair-style. This is probably the most dramatic thing I have ever done or ever will do to my hair. There, are so many things about short hair that people just don’t tell you before you get a dramatic haircut, because they’re things you don’t really think about. So I’m here to talk about them.


#1. TIME IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR

Okay so first off I just want to say, the idea that people with short hair have the benefit of not needing to spend as much time on it, is a complete myth that I am here to bust! I’ve found that I spend about twice as much time doing my hair than I did when I had long hair. When it was long I could just pop it up into a pony-tail if I wanted a quick and easy fix. Now, it has to be combed and hair-sprayed and adjusted. There is no easy fix to a bad hair day with short hair!


#2. SLEEPING

You wouldn’t think it, but short hair really affected my ability to get to sleep for the first week. Because I usually put my hair up in a bun or down in a braid, my head just wasn’t used to the way my new short hair felt on the pillow. It’s such a strange thing that I never thought the length of my hair would make a difference to, but it did. I’m fully adjusted to it now though :)


#3. BED HAIR
This is something that I NEVER had to worry about with long hair. I would always wake up with dead straight hair, no matter how much I tossed and turned the night before. But the first morning I woke up with short hair I went into the bathroom and completely shocked myself. My FIRST ever bed-hair. It’s something to adjust to, and I’m discovering new ways to fix the bed-hair for work, I find the best one is just to have a shower so the hair can re-set.


#4. THE FEELING

Having very short hair, especially after having very long hair, feel so strange. It kind of feels like I've got my hair up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to take my hair down before bed and suddenly realized that it wasn’t up, it was just short. It feels great though.


#5. SHOWERS

Oh. My. Gosh I will save so much money on shampoo. The first time I had a shower after my haircut (and to be honest the third and fourth as well) I put WAY too much shampoo into my hair and lathered the hell out of my poor head. You only really need about as much as a 20c piece. It's also so much quicker to dry my hair now, what used to take a minimum of 15 minutes, now takes me about 5 minutes maximum.

#6. HAIR IN THE EYES
One big plus, however, is that I don't get hair in my eyes anymore, which means things like running, making coffee and just general movement, are no longer subject to constant intrusion of stray hairs! And I don't need to wear those painful head-bands that give me head-aches. 

#7. OPTIONS
It is semi-true that having short hair does limit you somewhat, but that doesn't mean you can't get creative. Head-scarves, mini-braids, hair-spray, all still options that I have. I've been exploring all the different kinds of ways I can style my hair. Fringe up, fringe down, teased up... Having short hair does limit you, but it also forces you to get inventive :) 

There are pros and cons to having your hair cut this short, but all in all I love it! It does restrict the amount of things you can do with it, and yes I do miss braids, but I love the way it looks, and the way it feels. I’m definitely glad I made this change. 

Photoshoot

So I did a photo shoot last weekend with my lovely friend Sue. As some of you know, I recently got my hair cut short... and I mean SHORT!!! It used to be quite long so this has been a big change for me. I'll share more about it in upcoming posts but I thought It'd be fun to share the photos with you guys :)






Lots of Love

AB xx

P.s Shout out to my friend Jaydon, who's jeans I'm wearing in these photos ... borrowed them from him at his party the night before because I was wearing a dress and then it got really cold later into the night. But they were so cool I decided to steal them for a little while. I LOVE THESE JEANS SO MUCH they are so incredibly comfy, wish I could have stolen them. 


Anyway, have a beautiful week everybody :)