tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8480696990273285252024-03-15T01:37:14.015+11:00Jessie McKinnonhealth, fitness and lifestyle of a melbourne based uni student Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-65780541676474457612017-04-09T12:56:00.001+10:002017-04-09T12:56:30.486+10:00Rosie : Week 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On Friday 31st of March, 2017, at 5pm, Tom and I picked up our little rescue pup, Rosie from her foster carer's home to come live with us! I thought I'd pop my thoughts down here for the first few weeks so that we can keep track of her initial progress :)<br />
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Rosie is an approximately 7 year old Staffy X that we've adopted through Project Underdog Rescue, here in Melbourne.<br />
We've been wanting a little doggy pal for a long time but have finally moved out of our tiny apartment and managed to get ourselves a place with a little backyard so that we could get one! Adopting from a rescue organisation was the only possibility for us, and we knew we wanted an older dog that we could give a comfortable home to for the rest of their life. When little Rosie came up she sounded absolutely perfect for us, and despite the fact that we were in Kyoto, Japan at the time she was shared on PUR's Facebook page, we had to apply immediately.<br />
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The evening that Rosie came home with us, she paced a lot and wasn't too bothered by us. Tom went out for a little bit that night and Rosie chilled on the couch with me but overall we could tell she wasn't too sure and was looking for her foster carer, Al, a lot of the time.<br />
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On the Saturday we met both with her future obedience class trainer and her future dog walker. Over the course of the week, we realised she needed a bit more training than we realised so we've popped the regular dog walker on hold and have gotten her training walks with the obedience trainer for the short term, until we are confident that she is a bit more relaxed around other dogs.<br />
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As the week went on we've figured out a lot about her.<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>She is wary of dogs but think she displays her fear and uncertainty with aggression.</li>
<li>She is a lot more fearful of smaller dogs and is more tolerant of dogs bigger than her.</li>
<li>She lunges for cats and possums and we now know to cross the road if we spot one - hopefully only for the time being but we don't want to overload her with too many new skills to begin with.</li>
<li>She loooooooooves food and is responding incredibly to food-based positive reinforcement training. </li>
<li>She loves belly rubs, and every morning when I wake her up at 5am for a quick walk, she looks up at me, yawns then rolls onto her back for a morning belly rub - I love how warm she is when I wake her in the mornings. She has incredibly adorable puppy dog eyes.</li>
<li>She just takes herself off to bed when she's had enough of playing or getting belly rubs.</li>
<li>We got a doggy cam to watch her while we're at work, and her favourite place in the world when we aren't home is the corner of the couch that has all of the cushions and nice quilts - we've since gone to IKEA to get yet another blanket for her in the hopes that she'll go on that</li>
<li>She sheds less than we thought she was going to</li>
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We've been really proud of her for a lot of things. We took her to the vet for the first time on Friday evening. She's recently had 12 teeth out and her breath was smelling a little funny so we just wanted to be sure that it wasn't an infection. Despite the other dogs at the vet setting her off a bit, we were so pleased at how she did considering it was a new environment with a lot going on and a strange person trying to gently stick their fingers in her mouth to get a good look.</div>
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She is also SO clever. We are well on the way to teaching her so many things. Commands she knows so far are: sit, look, drop (for letting go of toys when playing), down (for lying on the ground, we tried teaching this as drop but realised she already knew the word), go to bed, leave, and we are working on come. We use the word 'go' to release her from the stationary positions, and when we make her sit at the doorway when leaving the house/gate and when sitting before crossing the road. We use the word 'Yes' as a reward word. She sits so well when waiting for us to let her eat her food. Tom is teaching her 'dead' and we are trying to not use 'paw' as she gets a bit excited to bat the treat out of her hand.</div>
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On Tuesday, I was sure she hated me and towards the end of a really great walk, she unexpectedly lunged for a cat and pulled me over, I was sure that she was going to hate me forever and never get settled. That was definitely the low point, because as the week progressed, she has shown more and more signs that she is trusting and loving us more little by little.</div>
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I'm going to end this with my favourite moment this week so far.<br />
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I woke up at 6am this morning to thunder and lightning. I checked the doggy cam from my phone in bed and could see that she was curled up on the couch but with her eyes open. After a particularly loud clap of thunder, I checked the doggy cam and she was gone, and all of a sudden she was beside the bed!! She's a great sleeper and before this morning, never ever left whenever we'd left her for the night. She's great at sleeping in her bed or on the couch.<br />
We've been letting her on the bed, but only on top of the doona, not in it. She wasn't crying or whimpering but I could tell she was a little stressed and wanted some company. We were so pleased that she knew to come to us when she was scared of the rain and thunder.<br />
She came up onto the bed, took up about half the thing and after about 5 minutes of sleepy pats, she was fast asleep and completely ignoring the ensuing thunder and lightening.<br />
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That was the moment we realised she might love us a bit more than we thought :) <3<br />
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-66335972478202238242016-05-23T19:16:00.000+10:002016-05-23T19:16:48.076+10:00Norway Part One - Oslo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So since I've last written on here, I've managed to get myself a job straight out of uni and I'm already at the point in my career where a three and a half week holiday is well deserved. I've been at my job for a whole year as of June 30th! It's crazy how fast time starts to fly as your work and life routine just gets going.<br />
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Tom and I have started our first trip back to England in nearly three years with a five day trip to Norway with his parents. To be entirely honest, I was a bit lazy and did very little research about Norway, except enough to figure out that we were doing a Norway In A Nutshell tour.<br />
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We got to Oslo and I had low expectations - I think I expected it to be a pretty city but kind of boring. I think I thought something similar of Norway as a whole. I knew nothing much about the country except that I was there at the wrong time of the year for the Northern Lights and that it was renown for being particularly expensive.<br />
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Boy, was I wrong about the boring part.<br />
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I quickly fell in love with Oslo. I <span style="font-family: inherit;">especially fell in love with the Norwegian's attitude towards being close to nature and having cabins in the woods to go to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A video for me to watch later about friluftsliv.</span></div>
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(https://vimeo.com/64425721 </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">'Friluftsliv' is an ancient Nordic philosophy of outdoor life.)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We did loads of asking around Oslo, our hotel (Hotel Bristol) was a lot more central than we realised and were only about a ten minute walk from most things. On our whole day in Oslo, we decided to go to museums in the morning and then a bike tour in the afternoon. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">It was a wonderful day. Tom and I visited the Viking Ship museum with his parents, and I'm glad we got there when we did - as we were leaving, four tourist busses turned up and the museum absolutely filled up.. It's only a tiny museum with four rooms!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">We split from Tom's parents and we decided to go to the </span>Norwegian Holocaust museum, which was really interesting. Neither of us realised that Norway was involved in the second world war, but we learned all about how Norway became occupied by the Germans during the early 40s, and how Norway managed to sneak loads of their Jewish community out through Sweden. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even though the museum was all in Norwegian, it wasn't a worry at all as we were given Samsung tablets with English translations of most of the displays.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That was actually something I was really impressed with - the fact that all Norwegians seemed to speak English, and speak it really well. We didn't have any language barriers anywhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet another moment in my life that I feel really ignorant for not speaking anything more than English :(</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We then headed back into the main city of Oslo - the museums are across the Oslo fjord and you get a boat over to them - and headed to our bike tour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The bike tour was great. Three hours of riding around, learning all about Oslo and how it came to be, Norwegian political views and what they expect of their public spaces, and my favourite part of the tour was the sculpture park - which I'd have known nothing about and probably wouldn't have gone to if not for the bike tour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We also found a gym at our hotel, which was wonderful, but my favourite part of the hotel was definitely the ice machines on every level. Every time that we went back to our room, I got myself another tub of ice! Woo hoo!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We had a really wonderful time in Oslo (and it luckily wasn't tainted by our 3am fire alarm at the hotel, caused by a nightclub next door!), but the next day it was time to head to Flam :)</span></div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0Cheshire East, UK53.197806582764358 -2.35519409179687553.121629582764356 -2.5165555917968749 53.273983582764359 -2.1938325917968751tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-61153437678051634682014-10-03T23:54:00.001+10:002014-10-03T23:58:12.949+10:00Life direction.. Or lack of!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm in a funny mood right now, where my brain feels kind of 'fuzzy' and a little bit lost and I don't know why. It is a strange feeling but not a feeling I can quite put my finger on. I feel like writing a blog post as I'm hoping it'll help me sort my thoughts out a little bit. I realise I had a bit of a 'thinking and lost' post a little while ago, but hey, it worked for a little while! No pictures today, just a rambly one.. So fingers crossed, here goes!<br />
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I have spent a lot of today thinking about the future, in particular my career path, and the more I think about it, the more muddled I get. I'm quickly approaching the end of my degree yet I'm no closer to approaching knowing <i>exactly what I want to do</i>... I have no answer to the question '<u>So what are you going to do when you finish?</u>' Absolutely none. I don't know.<br />
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Is winging it okay?<br />
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I was never a kid who knew exactly what I wanted to do. For a long time I remember wanting to be a princess mermaid, probably as a result of watching The Little Mermaid but as a grew older I realised that that isn't really an ideal career path for myself.<br />
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Over the years of high school in particular I swapped my career of choice on a somewhat regular basis. I remember deciding that I wanted to be a physiotherapist, an obstetrician/gynaecologist, a neonatal surgeon (I had been on a Grey's Anatomy binge, okay?!), an architect, an interior designer/decorator, a professional dancer, a civil engineer... the list goes on. While I find all of those things interesting, I feel like none of them are my <b>passion</b>.<br />
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I love singing, and I love performing but I have never had any desire to make that my career. To me it is a very enjoyable hobby, and something I'd like to do my very best to prevent becoming a chore. It is refreshing to be able to sit down at my keyboard or pick up my guitar and get lost in music again when I am stressed, even when they have had a few months of neglect.<br />
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So right now I am plugging away at my maths degree and hoping that an epiphany will smack me in the face (nicely!) somewhere along the way.<br />
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Does anybody really know what they want to do at 21?<br />
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Not me!</div>
Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-60052792458158982862014-08-05T16:47:00.000+10:002014-08-14T16:49:51.593+10:00MIFF Film Review: Ukraine is Not a Brothel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Kitty
Green’s film <i>Ukraine is Not a Brothel</i> is a very honest and delightfully
composed documentary of Ukraine’s topless feminism awareness group, Femen. The
film that was originally sparked by an article in a Melbourne newspaper was
born of over 700 hours of footage; recorded whilst Green lived with these girls
in Ukraine.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The movie
follows the stories of the young women who protest in order to change Ukraine’s
reputation of being full of female sex-workers and the perception that all
Ukrainian women are controlled by men; they wish for females to be equal to men
and have the same work opportunities. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">It begins
with quite an optimistic view of the girls, who each share tales of their
involvement with the organisation, and how it affects them and their families,
through interviews and footage of their bare-breasted protests. Each of the
them are stunning, slim, model-like girls (apart from one, whose grossly
overweight body is used for her ‘shock factor’ and publicity for the group) and
the documentary sheds light on not only their courage in the faces of the
public and hoards of pushy, old, male paparazzi, but also the hypocrisy within
their own organisation. It ends with a bizarre twist, which unintentionally
revealed itself over the course of the fourteen months of filming, that shows
that even the most vocal feminist groups can be riddled with the very
patriarchy that they protest against. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Without
giving too much away, when watching you become aware of a shady male character
named Victor, <span style="color: black;">who remains hidden for majority of the film, but at the end allows
us a brief insight into his involvement with the organisation. The girls also
receive majority of their funding by ‘donations’ from wealthy businessmen, but
choose to ignore the relevance of this.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Visually,
<i>Ukraine is Not a Brothel</i> showed a very bleak Ukraine and used the
subtraction of red from their footage to achieve this effect. It gives the
impression that it is a cold, grey place with a lot of poverty, and uses these
beautiful girls with colourful headdresses and body paint as bright beacons
of hope. Many of the scenes show close-up shots of the bruises and scars that
the girls receive as a direct consequence of getting dragged away by the
authorities during their protests. These allow us to sympathise for the girls,
who truly believe that baring their breasts is the only way out of their
squalor conditions. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Perhaps
the only serious downfalls of the film are that it is very insular and provides
no update of the girls now. The interviews are only centred around those
directly involved with Femen and it would have been interesting, and perhaps
added a different perspective, if we’d have received an insight into the
opinions of the general public about these girls. We can only assume that these
girls are as influential as they tell us. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Ultimately
the documentary was beautifully presented, with many stunning landscape shots
of Ukrainian landscapes. I was really proud (and felt a little bit patriotic) knowing that a fellow Melbournian had made this gorgeous film. The positives certainly outweigh the few negatives of
this film and is very deserving of a <b>4/5</b>.</span></span></span></div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-56527987226432516422014-07-31T16:27:00.000+10:002014-08-14T16:31:22.624+10:00Melbourne International Film Festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) runs from the 31st of July to the 17th of August this year. I've decided to do a subject at uni that is centred aroundthe festival and this means I'll be going to six documentaries and two industry talks as required by the course, and four films of my choice! This is one major plus about choosing to go to Melbourne Uni.. I'm almost finished my maths degree, yet all through my tertiary education, I've been required to do a subject a semester outside of my faculty, and it's been great to immerse myself into arts subjects (namely music and film) that I wouldn't have studied otherwise.<br />
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I'm really glad that I chose the documentary stream, as I really think I'll get a lot more out of it than a fiction stream. I'm not a huge film kind of girl, and it's not unusual for me to be gasped at with an 'oh my god, how have you not seen [insert film here]?!' I don't really have an excuse, I have just chosen to spend my time on things that I consider more important as I grew up - namely books and annoying my siblings to play Monopoly with me. I'm not even much of a television watcher to be honest, I didn't get into <i>Breaking Bad</i> and I'm still not into <i>Game of Thrones</i>... but hey, <i>Grey's Anatomy</i> is returning to telly soon, and I'm pretty excited about that!<br />
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So I thought I'd share some of my film experiences with you guys - they'll probably be strongly influenced by the pieces of writing I am doing for my assessment, but they'll give you a great insight into the films I'm seeing, and how I feel about them!<br />
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Don't get me wrong, I'm no film critic and I've read very few film reviews in my life, but these are simply going to be some short and sweet critiques of my first film festival experience! :D</div>
Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-17490371280882459612014-07-24T14:48:00.001+10:002014-07-24T14:49:31.664+10:00Running, university and the future...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I thought I'd write a short blog post while waiting for some rice to cook. I haven't put my thoughts down in writing for a little while so perhaps this sort of therapy will work its magic on me.</div>
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First things first, I've signed up for my very first half marathon. It's with the <a href="http://melbournemarathon.com.au/">Melbourne Marathon</a>, and is about twelve weeks away. I'm absolutely terrified. I've never made this kind of commitment... and it is a really really long way! It's further than the distance that I travel on my bike in a day, commuting to uni, and that in itself takes about an hour. I'm already worried that my legs are going to stop working halfway through.</div>
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So I've been reading a lot of articles, and searching Pinterest relentlessly for half marathon training guides. I think I'll use my Nike+ running app as a guide too. If anybody has any tips, please share them with me!</div>
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I reckon I'll finish it comfortably in about two and a half hours. I know this is a fairly slow speed, but I'm a pretty cruise-y runner to begin with anyway. Pace is important for short distances for me, but I'm a fairly new long distance runner so merely getting through the km is more important to me!</div>
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I'll post updates on how I go as my training progresses!</div>
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[<i><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/201465783305576004/">Image Source</a></i>]</div>
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I have three days left of my winter holidays for university and I couldn't possibly be feeling any more lost. I have a year left of my maths degree, or only eight subjects depending on how you want to look at it. The fact that I have to pass every single one of those subjects between then and now, or risk extending the length of my course absolutely terrifies me.</div>
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I don't feel like I've fallen in love with uni the way that people say you will. Sure, I've made lots of amazing friends that I wouldn't have met outside of uni, but the stress and amount of pressure that comes with it isn't enjoyable. Maybe it's the course I'm doing, maybe it's the amount of involvement I have in extracurricular activities or maybe it is just me.</div>
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I know that it'll be worth it, but crying myself silly over marks that I'm unhappy with is a little bit ridiculous.</div>
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I think my lack of direction has a lot to do with it. I started out doing engineering and my degree has taken a different path, so now I have no idea what use my degree will have, if any, apart from looking pretty on my resume. There are so many career options but absolutely none of them scream out at me going "Jessie! You'll enjoy this for the rest of your life!"</div>
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Maybe that's where my problem lies, I know that nothing is permanent but I am putting so much pressure on myself to make 'the right choice'...</div>
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All I know for certain in life is that I want enough money to travel the world and be happy.</div>
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A little bit of perspective... That's all I really need.</div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-84867914178371364272014-06-10T22:06:00.004+10:002014-06-10T22:08:06.135+10:00Recipe: Homemade Beef Burgers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCisQ5lkWPOF997cb6Y5op8awUgULWyWlPdkZoSOsqBy23vVIKdpg3gRn7Hh-pomxWoBSPyQ2Pd0drLFfZrirU6Rqm5p3-hZhzRg5Xyi24mtwL7sKjxA-ZHwA4Kj-h2gyXcyXRhe52hyphenhyphen0-/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCisQ5lkWPOF997cb6Y5op8awUgULWyWlPdkZoSOsqBy23vVIKdpg3gRn7Hh-pomxWoBSPyQ2Pd0drLFfZrirU6Rqm5p3-hZhzRg5Xyi24mtwL7sKjxA-ZHwA4Kj-h2gyXcyXRhe52hyphenhyphen0-/s1600/5.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAKIzUGxjH_AVQe7tfJdDw3pcdIjBPdtUZ7OWdz8K5yJ0PkvQj8QIwwXtpUV5d_RjuPEAK_9pIMMiBooDRWf1kwYBZAEh9H0npWAXxIG197Gqkf-oNvpZxVanApVikDLBRt97xCc2FsGF/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAKIzUGxjH_AVQe7tfJdDw3pcdIjBPdtUZ7OWdz8K5yJ0PkvQj8QIwwXtpUV5d_RjuPEAK_9pIMMiBooDRWf1kwYBZAEh9H0npWAXxIG197Gqkf-oNvpZxVanApVikDLBRt97xCc2FsGF/s1600/1.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></div>
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Last night for dinner, we had burgers. Burgers are an awesome, cheap and easy meal. It uses loads of pantry staples so if you have lots of sauces and spices, you won't end up having to buy very much! </div>
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This recipe is to make about 8 or 9 large burgers. You can make these a few hours ahead of time and you can freeze any uncooked leftovers for next time! </div>
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<b>Jessie's Easy Burger Recipe</b></div>
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Serves 4.<br />
Prep time: 10 minutes (with 20-30 minutes time in the fridge).<br />
Cooking time: ~8 minutes.</div>
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<b>Utensils you need:</b></div>
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a teaspoon</div>
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a grater</div>
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a large plastic or glass mixing bowl</div>
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a large frypan</div>
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a spatula</div>
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a large plate</div>
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cling film/glad wrap</div>
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<b>Ingredients:</b></div>
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500g of 3-star beef mince mince</div>
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1 large brown onion grated (unless you like chunks of onion, then diced)</div>
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1 large egg</div>
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1/2 cup of breadcrumbs</div>
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Seasonings of your choice (I used the following but you can put in whatever you want)</div>
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- Tomato sauce</div>
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- BBQ sauce</div>
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- Worcestershire Sauce</div>
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Dried herbs : rosemary, oregano, basil, coriander</div>
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Spices : paprika, ground cumin seeds</div>
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1 tsp Keen's Curry Powder</div>
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Salt and pepper</div>
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Olive oil (for frying)</div>
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A little bit of plain flour</div>
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For the sauces, I just put in a generous squeeze of sauce, but not too much as you don't want your mixture to be too wet! The herbs and spices, I did a few shakes of each - probably loads more rosemary though because I am obsessed with it lately.</div>
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To double the recipe you just use 1kg of mince, 2 large eggs and one cup of breadcrumbs. If you don't have breadcrumbs, break a couple of pieces of bread, or a single bread roll up into little pieces and dry oven roast them for about ten minutes in the oven (on about 1<span style="font-family: inherit;">80<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">°C</span>).</span></div>
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I use 3-star mince as it keeps the burgers quite juicy. You <i>can</i> use lean mince but you'll find that it retains a lot less moisture and results in drier and 'crumblier' burgers than if you use the more fatty mince.</div>
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<b>Method:</b></div>
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1. Put ALL ingredients (except for olive oil and plain flour) into your large mixing bowl</div>
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2. Lightly sprinkle your plate with some plain flour (this stops the burgers from sticking to the plate later)</div>
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3. Make sure you have washed your hands first then use your hands to combine all ingredients, until well mixed</div>
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4. Roll burger mince into golf ball sized balls and place onto the plate</div>
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5. Cover with cling film and put into the fridge for 20-30mins to firm up</div>
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6. Heat up the fry pan with some olive oil until hot and place the burgers a few cms apart</div>
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7. Squash the burgers down a bit with the spatula and fry for about 4 minutes each side on medium-high heat</div>
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8. Burgers are ready once they are light pinkish-brown in the middle</div>
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9. Serve with bread rolls, cheese, lettuce and veggies on the side</div>
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Enjoy! :)</div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-50772732640345491272014-05-28T22:10:00.003+10:002014-05-28T22:13:38.521+10:00Recipe: Carrot and Walnut Muffins <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Yesterday morning I made some <b>Wholemeal Carrot and Walnut Muffins</b>, and they are actually awesome. I've never baked with wholemeal flour before and thought that they turned out really nicely. The recipe I used is roughly the recipe used on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzGmaEJEDVI">Anna Saccone's banana muffin video</a>.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">I had absolutely loads of carrots that needed using, so decided to making 'carrot cake muffins' would be a great way to use them up - especially because I don't have a juicer.. wah! There are so many different recipes for carrot cake and carrot muffins, but I really liked the look and sound of this recipe because of how little sugar it uses. I know there's still a bit of sugar in them, but a lot of the natural sweetness comes from the dates which is pretty cool.</span></div>
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I also really just wanted to see if wholemeal flour would be that different... and it wasn't, so I'll be using that loads more in my cooking! :D</div>
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I completely winged it in terms of the icing - I had a little container left of icing sugar (probably about half a cup?) and a tub of cream cheese and mixed it all together.. the end result wasn't too shabby!</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"> <b>To make the muffins you will need: </b></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">2 cups wholemeal self raising flour</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1 1/2 tsp baking powder</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1/2 level tsp of each: nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">2/3 cup light brown sugar</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1/2 cup sunflower seeds</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1/2 cup walnuts, chopped small</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">3/4 cup dates, chopped small</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">2 eggs</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1/3 cup butter, melted</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1/2 cup milk</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">3 large carrots, grated</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1/2 cup vegetable oil</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><b>To make the cream cheese icing you will need: </b></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1/2 cup icing sugar</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">250g tub light spreadable cream cheese</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">walnuts to decorate</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><b>Method</b></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan forced</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">2. Sift flour, baking powder and spices, add in leftover wholemeal chunks</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">3. Add brown sugar, seeds, walnuts and dates</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">4. Stir dry mixture until well mixed</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">5. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">6. Add butter and milk to eggs, stir</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">7. Add wet mixture and grated carrot all at once</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">8. Stir until just combined - don't over stir! - adding in oil as you go to ensure mixture is moist enough</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">9. Bake for 25 minutes/until the tops spring back when lightly pressed</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">10. While these are cooling, put icing sugar and cream cheese into a bowl and whisk until soft</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">11. When the muffins are completely cool, ice them and decorate</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5kZeiklwOH-UU3PyxflN0DiWGe-BqHcxRv8RpQo-V0S1WCT_MfMgQslczKq0m4CFAmENPYlf11frjztysCmDkvqqbLUAaNOfJsE6j0rEMenfZllv8FAEhognbVjPzusajVQcYM7PsDzms/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5kZeiklwOH-UU3PyxflN0DiWGe-BqHcxRv8RpQo-V0S1WCT_MfMgQslczKq0m4CFAmENPYlf11frjztysCmDkvqqbLUAaNOfJsE6j0rEMenfZllv8FAEhognbVjPzusajVQcYM7PsDzms/s1600/7.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsjyw5p2rmPnUUZvPSMuipN1YX3Ddozba-CiW8fRI6SNHxU20_-cpnMZ4i7ZdIk7XUWsEVBPCabvBzfmFyOUWh_bdoFql47mEUxAY9Hlq2PZpcRG2WhEAgbKvx9_IOddyZmYY1ghPANJ3/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsjyw5p2rmPnUUZvPSMuipN1YX3Ddozba-CiW8fRI6SNHxU20_-cpnMZ4i7ZdIk7XUWsEVBPCabvBzfmFyOUWh_bdoFql47mEUxAY9Hlq2PZpcRG2WhEAgbKvx9_IOddyZmYY1ghPANJ3/s1600/8.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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Enjoy!</div>
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:) Jessie xx</div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-83828856531843210742014-05-17T15:07:00.003+10:002014-05-18T11:34:45.267+10:00Blogging again!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've been wanting to get back into blogging and vlogging for a while now but keep having creative-blocks as to what I should talk about. So I thought that I may as well just jump in the deep end, otherwise I'd be forever putting it off and wouldn't get back into it again anyway!</div>
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I want to start my new and improved blog off with a few of my favourite photos since I last posted in 2011!</div>
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One of my favourite trips in the UK was to Scotland in June 2011. This photo was taken from Stirling Castle, and remains one of my favourite photos of my travels on my gap year.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIy_bKIQUKmmXv_wxLkWyNMczKmcrb2AymmvM7YyBL987mgmhquc_katQ80F_343_XbQfhvruTt3EX9XvD1XS4urD5H-BHCHNZjdhe1XxyZt0O_LhyphenhyphenYOKzl7EqQ2T4tN1IG6sHm-D3Bedh/s1600/Scotland+SAM_0847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIy_bKIQUKmmXv_wxLkWyNMczKmcrb2AymmvM7YyBL987mgmhquc_katQ80F_343_XbQfhvruTt3EX9XvD1XS4urD5H-BHCHNZjdhe1XxyZt0O_LhyphenhyphenYOKzl7EqQ2T4tN1IG6sHm-D3Bedh/s1600/Scotland+SAM_0847.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></div>
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In April 2012, Tom and I went to western Indonesia for 10 days for my first 'off the beaten track' Asia experience. It was truly the best holiday of my life and I don't know when and if it will ever be beaten.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgIcnZda-wEE5r4VM1TzF1m8dTQuUwFCoT4EaM0qmDdiES-DFcHLw1gAeRfFEwrnDtG757SVLzokWDACHdnLCHlmTBIRwcBh7ER1qGN7_dS_CgDRz3USEqFn9peUMGcHiN9SGNel1Td7-V/s1600/indonesia1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgIcnZda-wEE5r4VM1TzF1m8dTQuUwFCoT4EaM0qmDdiES-DFcHLw1gAeRfFEwrnDtG757SVLzokWDACHdnLCHlmTBIRwcBh7ER1qGN7_dS_CgDRz3USEqFn9peUMGcHiN9SGNel1Td7-V/s1600/indonesia1.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our view of the ocean from our hut in Pulau Weh</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhrwxAzeIUh1LwhuPxhOWc4cdLrWrjlBNzECo-1aiZA5ALsyMObu8F_s2ktDDXM8lXcdpjFsRFRarm40Lo6L0ileGSIlWmauqZq6I91iCL879X-wpXpQkm3ho6EFu-YROoW2g6xV8fXfcP/s1600/indonesia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhrwxAzeIUh1LwhuPxhOWc4cdLrWrjlBNzECo-1aiZA5ALsyMObu8F_s2ktDDXM8lXcdpjFsRFRarm40Lo6L0ileGSIlWmauqZq6I91iCL879X-wpXpQkm3ho6EFu-YROoW2g6xV8fXfcP/s1600/indonesia.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snorkelling off the coast of Pulau Weh</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLP-vu99RdoHna9pr1kAeXzvwVCwgsokek-_CTqO1Qy3vsVwO9lSfuW4WcZp_u0rpLxFXrg6nTqk_eC6-gc_I3DFoGYJgQV081Ni3YY6fJMGfAiMjsPZ1p5h-cSC-OD9fEITJTpdiAPQxB/s1600/indonesiajournal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLP-vu99RdoHna9pr1kAeXzvwVCwgsokek-_CTqO1Qy3vsVwO9lSfuW4WcZp_u0rpLxFXrg6nTqk_eC6-gc_I3DFoGYJgQV081Ni3YY6fJMGfAiMjsPZ1p5h-cSC-OD9fEITJTpdiAPQxB/s1600/indonesiajournal.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Journalling in Ketambe, in the jungle</td></tr>
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In September 2012, I visited England on my holidays and Tom and I made time to visit the Harry Potter Studios in Leavesden. It was absolutely incredible and 100% recommend it for any HP fan :)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqAcjfNSJpc9fD48fSfdtafAZAadG41U2sA__Dc5qC4M82jZ1Eu0YeRF8FVSYoGMSdiMg7PxqE6kMVVgXB0-pf6OL2pLTyknyDFM1rTw3qgdTRBX4zJegSYP4hpyR39l9ezUlwQItAsbr/s1600/harrypotterengland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqAcjfNSJpc9fD48fSfdtafAZAadG41U2sA__Dc5qC4M82jZ1Eu0YeRF8FVSYoGMSdiMg7PxqE6kMVVgXB0-pf6OL2pLTyknyDFM1rTw3qgdTRBX4zJegSYP4hpyR39l9ezUlwQItAsbr/s1600/harrypotterengland.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></div>
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In June 2013, when Tom was preparing to move to Australia, I flew over immediately after my last exam and surprised him at his going away party. We spent 10 days together and, as I hadn't brought too much over, Tom used most of my luggage space for his extra stuff to take bring back to Australia!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgek6cLv5Vii0oNZVBG6qmiDo-RNvYbsMZnpix0jmIKL3XHlZdU2hvoWbNseMQdCEhQwzchKc1CPcP_Qgtbr52OWCGot7RMu3KszvICBBweEoRU_WNZu6kk4HN8DH5763h0LXjA506bAoCp/s1600/tomjessieengland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgek6cLv5Vii0oNZVBG6qmiDo-RNvYbsMZnpix0jmIKL3XHlZdU2hvoWbNseMQdCEhQwzchKc1CPcP_Qgtbr52OWCGot7RMu3KszvICBBweEoRU_WNZu6kk4HN8DH5763h0LXjA506bAoCp/s1600/tomjessieengland.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How incredible do Tom's mum's flowers look!?</td></tr>
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In November 2013, Tom and I completed the Eureka Climb in Melbourne. We climbed a total of 1642 stairs over 88 levels, and successfully reached the roof of the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. We also raised over $1100 for charity, for the event.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJqtPluy5TLUFaldliiPe1f_g6AvfTimMtcVuWW4jHVR1en7K1fydL1DAMx6o4Ku73zdUVtIOtqli7eEfskvEHcNV6mc0Sgrd_xdY8LOUXlqgMoxAmTWFJfXiksdqoJuhTOgCHGvtHKSmm/s1600/eurekaclimb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJqtPluy5TLUFaldliiPe1f_g6AvfTimMtcVuWW4jHVR1en7K1fydL1DAMx6o4Ku73zdUVtIOtqli7eEfskvEHcNV6mc0Sgrd_xdY8LOUXlqgMoxAmTWFJfXiksdqoJuhTOgCHGvtHKSmm/s1600/eurekaclimb.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></div>
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And finally in December of last year, I was surprised with my very own Surprise 21st 'J' Party. About 100 people all dressed up and gave me the shock of my life, and subsequently the party of my life.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9dCCv7lPtCWfwde9JjevPHlVMVTyH8a5iSbGFOD3cxwMxaazM29ebNyrdUntuOKONoW1JFJQCCnAEzLu2Zqr9eJkICYKt_cvuLx6iWFJ2ExtWDdp6j-2tg4v-fANWdGb9KHuqAA4fO4X/s1600/21st+surprise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9dCCv7lPtCWfwde9JjevPHlVMVTyH8a5iSbGFOD3cxwMxaazM29ebNyrdUntuOKONoW1JFJQCCnAEzLu2Zqr9eJkICYKt_cvuLx6iWFJ2ExtWDdp6j-2tg4v-fANWdGb9KHuqAA4fO4X/s1600/21st+surprise.jpg" height="311" width="320" /></a></div>
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So I think my life is pretty interesting, and I can't wait to share more of it with you guys (...if anyone ever reads this apart from my parents...)! I'm hoping to put up loads of things - recipes for eating well on a uni student budget, workouts that I do, training plans that I follow, maybe some book and movie reviews, and general stuff about my life!<br />
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:) Jessie xx</div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-63731751561450367372011-05-02T07:05:00.000+10:002014-05-18T11:35:20.558+10:00Malta.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For my second week of holidays, I went to stay five days in Malta to meet a whole bunch of my family :) I stayed with my lovely second cousin, and tour-guide, Claire, and her mum and dad, in Lija.<br />
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By this stage, I'd bought a new camera whilst having a quick stop over with some friends in London, so I had a brand shiny new toy to play with and take lots of photos with!<br />
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Malta was amazing. The buildings were gorgeous - all limestone - and all of the roads were tiny and winding. There are heaps of churches in Malta. I'm not even kidding when I say that I reckon there's one on nearly every second street. And they're all huge, and gorgeous.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx-Y8mTczA7KhFVzrWr8HNbaBnz6mEEJF4OXx6bnYK7_tSFR_W06VoEddBm9brspWgxHPSfgl-wqlgL_MXDa2cyo_j6MYN2kXXaT63bV0UVBuqSS8h9LV5hD0pOdyjTIHD5kuckfkjN2LF/s1600/SAM_0059.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx-Y8mTczA7KhFVzrWr8HNbaBnz6mEEJF4OXx6bnYK7_tSFR_W06VoEddBm9brspWgxHPSfgl-wqlgL_MXDa2cyo_j6MYN2kXXaT63bV0UVBuqSS8h9LV5hD0pOdyjTIHD5kuckfkjN2LF/s320/SAM_0059.JPG" height="320" j8="true" width="240" /></a></div>
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Claire took me to the popular tourist destination - Valetta. A gorgeous city with plenty of cute tourist shops and awesome ice-cream :) We spent the day taking photos, wandering through some gardens with some stunning views and admiring a lovely exhibition of the artist, Mucha. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNGFbdA6NIBeb7XCC1wlSUt8i86cyK517ZcrCTMGmoW6aQJA4gWnKY-j75S7UFIUbECAlvlLYkGPikm3FC1FRKzfMKFXXhVnvFujAVwYJe9Jpjpk3amkYjf8oz41jK_J8Du0tnwYxtDpt/s1600/SAM_0063.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNGFbdA6NIBeb7XCC1wlSUt8i86cyK517ZcrCTMGmoW6aQJA4gWnKY-j75S7UFIUbECAlvlLYkGPikm3FC1FRKzfMKFXXhVnvFujAVwYJe9Jpjpk3amkYjf8oz41jK_J8Du0tnwYxtDpt/s320/SAM_0063.JPG" height="240" j8="true" width="320" /></a></div>
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And so, the whole reason for my trip, I spent a lot of time meeting relatives of mine! I got to meet my Nanna's brother, Mum's cousins and lots of my second cousins :)</div>
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Claire's mum is an AMAZING cook. Pretty sure she overheard Claire and I discussing how much we love chocolate eclairs, so she whipped these up sneakily whilst we were out, and lucky I got a photo when we did (half way through.... :P) because they didn't last very long at all!!!! Yummm yumm!</div>
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For another one of our day trips, Claire took me to Mdina, Malta's walled ancient city. There are lots of winding little lanes that you can't see the ends of, and apparently this is so that anyone that tried to invade the city would get lost, pretty clever!</div>
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You might have noticed in my earlier photo of a church, that it has two clocks on it. In fact, one of these clocks is fake and is used to 'confuse the devil' if he ever decides to come and ambush the church or something similar... Hopefully he'll get so disoriented and baffled about the two different times that he'll just go back on home... :D<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Claire's awesome piano! :D</td></tr>
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On the Friday night of my visit, Claire, Manuel (another of my second cousins) and myself had a night out on town in a place called Paceville! We had a maddd night, got plenty of drinks bought for us and just spent the whole night dancing :) An awesome end to my trip!!!<br />
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-22722212247026504902011-04-28T07:04:00.000+10:002014-05-18T11:35:57.132+10:00Ireland Part Two.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span lang="CY" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: CY; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">And on the fourth day we went and hung out at the Cliffs of Moher. It was pretty foggy when we got there, but by the time we’d gone for a bit of a walk, it’d cleared a bit</span>.<br />
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That night we headed to Killarney and went to a fantastic pub called the Grand Hotel. There was a rad cover band and once they packed up, a door opened up and turns out there was a club just out the back :)<br />
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By day five, we were all getting preeeetty tired. Lots of 3 and 4am bedtimes, and so a massive beach day was more than welcome. We were really lucky on our tour to have fantastic weather and it was only a little drizzly on one of the days. We went to two different beaches; our tour guide, Connor, told us to frollick on the sand and so we did - lots of cartwheels on my behalf :D<br />
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The last day was our 'going home day,' but it was also the day that we made a treck to Blarney Castle. I got the pleasure of sharing my germs with the 300,000+ people that kiss the Blarney Stone per annum. By Irish tradition, apparently kissing the Blarney Stone blesses the 'kissee' with eloquent speech.. But I don't feel any different, and my vocab hasn't changed, so I guess it didn't really work very well at all!!<br />
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By the end of the six days, we'd done an absolutely huge treck of Ireland, a complete circuit. I'd do the tour again in a second, it was one of the best weeks of my life - great people, great places, great country. Go Ireland :)<br />
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-90251026184224541892011-04-26T07:20:00.000+10:002014-05-18T11:36:19.778+10:00Ireland Part One.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">‘<em>By the age of 12, a child knows at least 27 ways to tell if someone is a catholic or a prodestant.</em>’ - Derry</span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;"></span><span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">On the first Saturday of my school holidays, my 12 hour bus ride -including a 4 hour ferry ride- left for Ireland. We landed in Dublin at about 6.30am and so I had a whole day of checking out Dublin. I went and had a look at Dublin Castle, and the Garda (police) memorial gardens.</span><br />
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">On April 4th, my Paddywagon tour began at Paddy’s Palace, Dublin. First stop was The Papal Cross in Phoenix Park, Dublin. The cross was erected in anticipation of Pope John Paul II's visit in 1979. Over a million people came to see the Pope celebrate mass here.</span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">And then.... the Guinness Storehouse! Zoomed through the factory, tried half a glass of Guinness draught, left my mark on the ‘Guinness message wall’ and headed up to the Gravity Bar, ready for my FREE Pint of Guinness!! Woo hoo! But alas, it tasted pretty funky – and as I was to discover later on the tour, it tastes a lot better with blackcurrent – so I only finished half.. Dang.<br />
On our way to Belfast, we stopped at a town called Drogheda and checked out the preserved head of Saint Oliver Plunkett.<br />
We stayed in Belfast. I’m really cut that I didn’t do the Belfast Black Cab tour, cos it would’ve been awesome, but alas, something to do next time I’m in Ireland hey.</span></div>
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Monasterboice was built in the 14th century. The bigger cross is smooth at the bottom because for centuries Monks used to walk around it with one hand on the base. </div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">On Day Two, our first stop was the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. The first and probably the last rope bridge I’ll ever go on in my life. It wasn’t nearly as swingy, or rickedy, as I’d hoped but it was a wooden bridge, 30m up from the sea so it was pretty cool.</span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">After that we went and had a chill at the Irish half of the Giants Causeway - super awesome rock formations on the north coast of Ireland caused by rapid cooling of molten lava when in immediate contact with water. The story of its formation is slightly different in Irish folklore, telling a tale of two giants, one from Ireland <em>Finn MacCool</em> and the other from Scotland <em>Benandonner</em>. The Irish giant challenged the Scottish guy to a duel and built a bridge so that they could. The Irish guy basically chickened out when he realised how much bigger the Scottish guy was and went and hid as a baby. The Scottish guy then freaked out cos he thought that the baby was huge and was afraid that the dad would be massive, and he fled Ireland, smashing the bridge to bits as he went. And this is how the Irish reckon the Giants Causeway was formed.</span><br />
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">We had a quick roadstop for a photoop at Dunluce Castle, its kitchen fell into the ocean in 1639 and has been abandoned ever since.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yO_ZK1D_MPM5Afn9RYmyfuDPuaM1u_Q5GlGD3gq0LEsK9Ukb_8EgL3mpylMdZJhuYLY-63zcMcRKBZEQVjsIbQyMxlbZ9zE-4TXqx8fTKKntGJOd9w2t5ugCpffHNWngbzUSyAvs07js/s1600/SANY0852.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yO_ZK1D_MPM5Afn9RYmyfuDPuaM1u_Q5GlGD3gq0LEsK9Ukb_8EgL3mpylMdZJhuYLY-63zcMcRKBZEQVjsIbQyMxlbZ9zE-4TXqx8fTKKntGJOd9w2t5ugCpffHNWngbzUSyAvs07js/s320/SANY0852.JPG" height="240" j8="true" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">And that evening we stayed in Derry. We immediately did a walking tour with a local and got to see </span><span style="color: #0c0c0c;">the scene of the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972</span><span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">. Our tour guide explained the struggle between the Prodestants and Catholics, and why many residents of Derry feel that they can only live within the walled part of the city. The night was topped off with an evening of traditional irish music at Paedar O’Donnells Pub.</span><br />
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">Day Three we travelled to Galway via Grianan Ailligh, a rock formation built in about 3000BC and Sligo, where the site of famous irish poet WB Yeats’ grave is. And we proceeded to chill in Galway, the ‘party captial’ of Ireland. It was also the night I broke my camera, dang.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKHQtdUb03JJXJygamrw1taLDNvB6auhRbAPMefFNGUmJ9pcxnPtzWgq5YSaj44IpkyDHmQgDUmptO-IK4a1UFJUmUf8-S-o4tvgttiy2BkwZDEwNoLCJBDkZJY3e_NjcLRrNZkn4ulFOF/s1600/SANY0886.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKHQtdUb03JJXJygamrw1taLDNvB6auhRbAPMefFNGUmJ9pcxnPtzWgq5YSaj44IpkyDHmQgDUmptO-IK4a1UFJUmUf8-S-o4tvgttiy2BkwZDEwNoLCJBDkZJY3e_NjcLRrNZkn4ulFOF/s320/SANY0886.JPG" height="320" j8="true" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And the best soft serve ever :)</td></tr>
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<em>to be continued...</em></div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-986184273249766952011-02-26T06:31:00.002+11:002014-05-18T11:36:39.668+10:00London.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">I began my holidaying for the year in London. I thought it was a pretty apt place to start my travelling. So for half term (15th – 19th of Feb) I headed down four hours south and went to the capital city of England. <br />
I like the London Underground so much better than Metro, way easier to navigate and trains every two minutes – pretty swish. So expensive though, so I think I’ll stick to my Vline tickets and Metcards in the future.<br />
For my first two nights I stayed in a youth hostel across the road from St Paul’s Cathedral, and right around the corner from Millenium Bridge, the bridge that gets wrecked by Death Eaters in HP6 ;)</span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">On my first night I went out to dinner in Camden at The Lock Tavern. Defo recommend it. It was really dimly lit, had a really retro feel with communal tables and when I ordered a ‘vegie burger,’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got two slabs of roast butternut pumpkin with a whole bunch of green stuff and ricotta. Absolutely going back.</span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">Day two I walked from St Paul’s to Trafalgar Square and that took the whole part of an hour, and when I got there I hopped on an Original Bus Tour bus. Sat on the top level of my first double decker for two and a half hours and saw all of London’s typical touristy things. Did you know that St Paul’s Cathedral is 365 feet high? One for every day of the year ;)</span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">We drove past Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, the London Eye, a boat in a giant glass bottle at Trafalgar Square, lots of double decker buses, the skinniest pub in London, the Marble Arch, Hyde Park and just lots of rad places.</span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">I hopped off my bus at the Tower of London and went to check out where Thomas More and Anne Boleyn (to name a couple) got executed. I had a really funny old tour guide that talked a lot like Ray! I got to stand at the foot of the Bell Tower – where Thomas More was imprisoned for two years. I saw Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, and heaps of other people that King Henry VII got executed’s graves.. They also had the Crown Jewels, five centuries worth of royal armour and 500 year old graffiti on display.</span><span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;"></span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">On day three I found the cutests Twinings shop on the way. They had a ‘Twinings museum’ out the back, and a room where you can make your own cuppa for free. So I was pretty happy with that and ended up spending £20 there.... oops! I kept walking, up past Traf Square and headed up Regent and Oxford streets. I was taking photos of all the Monopoly streets I passed as I went - and took a mental note to find them all next time I go to London for some ‘tourist time’! I ended up in Hamley’s – the biggest toy shop in London – it had a whole floor dedicated to teddies, fantastic!</span></div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">After that I meandered all the way back to St Paul’s Cathedral and took myself to Eucharist Mass – and that also meant I got in for free! Yay! St Paul’s was so pretty on the inside but they were really tight about not taking photos, dang.<br />
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And day three turned out to be a chockerblock day because after THAT I walked over to the Tower of London and hopped on a cruise to Greenwich and the Royal Observatory. The Royal Observatory was awesome, heaps of telescopes and clocks, big displays about the invention of clocks and time keeping. I got to start on the Prime Meridian, that was pretty cool.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR6UjNjC_Xx6rxYnbPVmit0XMSBQx7s0KB1-ajEMBVa8DmMA_Wr_dasgpTxUZQZQGTB_2Vuf8ADEqQfjx_n7XhcBFwFZMPgY2b_7LF7yMPgl0No-T_9cjvBwUv9M_fsYOHUDm8etMOC6gi/s1600/SANY0684.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>That night I headed over to Acton – west london – and chilled for two days with my London family from Australia :) In those two days, I had a lazy day exploring the Science, V&A and Natural History Museums - taking photos where I wasn't meant to be sometimes... Oops! I got to see the first random number generator created - Ernie - and lots of maths things, it was awesome. Then at the Victoria&Albert Museum, there was a small exhibition of Beatrix Potter's art school drawings!</div>
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<span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;"></span> <span lang="CY" style="mso-ansi-language: CY;">Highlight of the trip was definitely going to Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station on the way home!</span></div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-24717442051991853172011-02-08T05:23:00.000+11:002014-05-18T11:36:59.664+10:00One month.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As of this week, I've officially been away from Australia for more than a month. I reckon I've done pretty well considering that up until now, the longest I'd been away from home was a week.<br />
I had a pretty low key week - which is always lovely. The best thing I did was the Friday night boarding activity! We took thirteen of the boarders out to the movies in a place called Didsbury, and saw Tangled! We saw it in 3D, so we got some dodgy rip-off Ray Ban inspired glasses to wear in too.<br />
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In about a week I'm heading to London for five days and I am SO excited! So hopefully I'll have heaps of interesting pics to put up next time :)</div>
Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-66832363134411856642011-02-01T03:03:00.000+11:002014-05-18T11:37:21.455+10:00Four weeks in.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've been in England for almost four weeks now, they've absolutely flown. The first week was a massive blur - the jet lag took that long to wear off - and by the time it had, I was working. I'm here with three other people my age, one girl and two boys, and we're the 'gappies' for our school.<br />
I'm working at a school about an hour south of Manchester, and it is lovely. I think the building is a couple of hundred years old. It's four storeys high and has cellars.<br />
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I've jumped into work as a 'gap assistant.' I laminate heaps, do heaps of yard duty, a little bit of office work and help in a couple of classes. I help with Grade 6 French and two Design Technology (DT) classes. The facilities here are incredible, especially considering this is a prep school - which is basically a fancy name for Primary school with 3 and 4 year old Kinder, and Years 7 and 8 also. They have science labs, a music room with smaller practice/lesson rooms, a fantastic art room and a really well equipped DT room, ICT labs, language rooms and a massive massive games pitch.<br />
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They are really big on sports at this school, they have tennis courts, hockey, rugby and 'football' (...soccer) pitches, a running track and a covered swimming pool. They have interschool netball, hockey and rugby games every single week.<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
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We haven't had a chance to go into Manchester or London yet. I've briefly been to Birmingham but saw very little of it. The trains here are ridiculously expensive and English drivers are CRAZY. The roads are as winding as if you were driving up Mt Macedon, but the speed limit is 80km/hr, or 50 miles/hr. They're also heaps skinnier than in Aus. If you broke down, you'd have to sit right in the middle of the road - they have hedges growing along the sides of the road!!! Also, petrol here costs £1.30per litre, as opposed to the lovely cheap $1.30 you guys are paying back in Aussie.<br />
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So far I've been having an absolute blast, but I'm sure it's going to get way more exciting, especially with school holidays coming up in two weeks!!!</div>
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Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-848069699027328525.post-26014089708133421742011-01-03T07:54:00.000+11:002014-05-18T11:37:34.662+10:00The Beginning.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My brand new blog. I thought I'd start it so I could share more about my trip than just a folder of photos on facebook. No photos yet though, I haven't left yet. I leave on Monday night! Then 12 months of Europe.<br />
But alas, now it's time to keep cleaning out my room/packing up. So I can't play with this really any longer.. Bummer!</div>
Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05069607695441121386noreply@blogger.com0