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 :)

Banana Choc-Chip Muffins Recipe

So I've been doing some creating in the kitchen again, this time it's banana choc-chip muffins. Delicious, if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:
* 1/2 Cup of Butter or Margarine
* 1/4 Cup of Sugar
* 1 Egg
* 3 Medium Bananas
* 1 3/4 Cups of Self-Raising Flour
* 1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
* 1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
* As many choc-chips as you can stand!

#1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Mash the bananas into a bowl.The older and browner the bananas the easier they will be to mash, and old/brown-ness doesn't affect the taste of the muffins

#2. Mix the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Then add the egg and the banana and blend again.
#3. Add the nutmeg and the baking soda. If you don't have baking soda but you do have baking powder, that's okay, just double the amount. So that would be 1/2 Tsp of baking soda.
#4. Add the SR-Flour to in batches, you don't really need an electric beater for this bit, in fact I prefer to use a fork because the mixture is quite thick, which means that it's really hard to clean the beater afterwards. And using a fork is just as effective.
#5. This recipe calls for choc-chips but they are 100% optional. The muffins are still delicious without them, but most people prefer to add the chocolate. If you don't have choc-chips that's okay, you could use choc melts or a chocolate block, or any kind of chocolate and just chop them up into bits, as displayed below :)

#6. Scoop the mixture into patty pans. The great thing about patty pans is they make wash up so much easier, because the tray is clean, plus I think it makes eating the muffins a whole bunch easier. I use two dessert spoons to scoop because they generally collect the perfect amount of mixture. But as a general rule, I wouldn't fill the patty pans much higher than level, don't dome the mixture in the pans, they will rise on their own.
#7. Put in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes. 

BEFORE

 AFTER

So there it is, banana choc-chip muffins, happy cooking my friends xx

Insurgent Review: (no spoilers, I promise)

Some friends and I recently went to the movies to watch the new movie ‘Insurgent’, the second movie of three based on the trilogy ‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth.

To be perfectly honest, I hated the first movie (Divergent). Although it followed the storyline well, I thought the actors did a poor job of portraying their characters. It felt like the actors hadn't even read the book. I mean, Four (one of the two main characters) in the book was absolutely terrified of heights (I'm talking paralyzing fear here guys), and Four in the movie was supposedly afraid of heights, but when he came to be on a rail, high above the city, he seemed to have no trouble dealing with the situation and crossing to the adjacent building, no worries. I found this more than mildly irritating, to say the least.

However the second movie (Insurgent) I absolutely loved!! This time the movie followed the storyline more loosely but I felt the actors did a much better job of reflecting the characters in the book! They had a great main cast in Shailene Woodley and Theo James.

Shailene Woodley did an amazing playing Tris. I felt like her connection to the character deepened in this movie compared to the last one. Her passion and intensity were definitely amplified. There were so many moments during the movie where I felt connected to her, and her story. BRILLIANT!!

The ever-gorgeous Theo James was also excellent. I was particularly bothered by his portrayal of Four in the last movie, but in this one I thought he was much improved. I felt like he didn't do quite as good a job as Shailene, just because she was so amazing in this movie! Don't get me wrong, he played his character incredibly well. But Four is more of a reserved, stoic, stand-off ish kind of character, so his acting required less obvious emotions.

I thought the story was well written, although it didn’t follow the book exactly, it covered all the important parts while still including new twists and exciting drama. All in all a MUST SEE movie. But as always you should definitely read the books first. An excellent trilogy, I personally struggled with the ending, but that’s another story for another time.

Pikelets Recipe

This recipe is perfect for an afternoon snack! They're delicious, easy to prepare, they're light, they're fluffy and they don't require a lot of ingredients. I, unfortunately, cannot take credit for this recipe, my friend Danyelle created it. She and I made them for a late-night mid-movie snack. We were watching 'Pride', a movie that I highly recommend to anyone.

To make these pikelets you will need:
* 1 Cup of Water
* 1 Cup of Self-Raising Flour
* 1 Cup of Sugar
* 1 Egg
This will make approximately 10 pikelets. This recipe does not use milk, which is what makes them light and not so dense. It also makes them dairy free, for those of you who are (like me) of the lactose intolerant variety.

In the above picture you'll notice I've doubled the recipe, which is really easy to do because there is the same amount of everything.

#1. Add all the ingredients into a bowl. Note: Cracking the eggs into a separate bowl will help avoid egg shells in your mixture. Also, if you scramble the eggs in that bowl with a fork it will make your next step easier.
#2. Mix all the ingredients together with a fork. You can use a blender if you like. but I find it's easier, quicker and cleaner if you mix them by hand. And don't worry if the mix has little clumps of flour in them, it won't affect the pikelets when they're being cooked.

#3. Cook the piklets. In order to get the right amount of mixture in one piklet, use a 1/2 cup measure to transfer the mixture into the saucepan. Don't have the saucepan on high heat, put it on low so that the piklets don't cook too quickly or burn. Don't walk away from the pan or your pikelets will almost certainly burn. I like to use lots of butter in my pan, (so does my pal Brianna.) not only does it give them a beautiful golden brown colour but it makes them taste extra delicious.

Taaaaah Daaaaah!! A fool proof piklet recipe. Enjoy xx

Travel planning tips

I absolutely LOVE planning, I like to be as organised as possible. I’m currently planning my Europe trip with my sister Kia. She’s more of a spontaneous kind of person (the kind of person who would dye their hair red on a whim, or take a random 2 week trip to Tobago in her school break!) So if you’re that kind of person and you’d like a bit of a planning guideline, or if you love organisation but you don’t know where to start… this post is for you!

#1. Budgeting – This should be your first stage of planning. It’s really important to keep track of your money and plan how much you’re going to spend and what you’re going to spend it on. Something I found really helpful was to give yourself a daily amount to spend on each cost. Split your money into categories. ‘In City Costs’ (ICC’s) and ‘Travel’ (Flights, Train tickets, bus tickets etc). Within your ICC’s make sure you include money for food, accommodation, public transport, attractions, and give yourself a certain amount of money each day for each cost. The cost may vary depending on the country/city.

#2. Research - Every country, every city is different and has it's own unique public transport, language, food, accommodation, music scene. Do as much research as you can about the places you're going to visit, so that you know what tourist attractions you want to go and see, what food you want to experience, what hotels are the most affordable, what bus you need to take to get there etc. I don't think there's any such thing as too much research.

#2. Write EVERYTHING down – Whether it’s electronically or in a notebook, make sure you write down all your ideas, goals, plans, budgets and thoughts. I have two planning notebooks that I literally take with me everywhere I go. Then you have a space in which you can explore ideas, and you have some sort of tangible plan. Which not only makes it feel more real and exciting but it also means you have something to look back on if you forget what hostel you decided to book in Paris or what restaurant you wanted to eat at in Rome. 

#3. Don’t be afraid to make changes – It’s good to have some level of spontaneity. Don’t have every minute of every day planned down to a T, allow for some flexibility. And re-budget as many times as you like. Budgeting is a realty important stage in the planning process and it should be your first point of call, but if you start with a certain amount of money to spend (or save up for) and things change (like hours at work getting cut or an opportunity to buy an affordable car comes up) don’t be afraid to cut your budget. And the same goes for increasing your budget if you can afford it. I’ve just completed my third big change to my Europe budget. And we’ve changed the list of cities we want to visit about 6 times. (At the moment it’s London, Paris, Venice, Rome and Monaco… but who knows how long that list will last)
This being said… it’s also really important to have some constancy. Give yourself a date on which you have to have a solid plan (the sooner the better, because booking accommodation and flights becomes more and more expensive the closer to your trip you book it.)

So there you go… just a few of my travel planning tips. I hope they’re useful to you :)