Christmas in Australia: Living in the now

It’s that time of year again when it’s completely acceptable to wear knitted jumpers with singing snowmen, eat your weight in chocolate for that extra layer of chub on those cold Christmas nights, and use the abundance of Christmas parties to get utterly bladdered and it not even be questioned. What happens at the Christmas party, stays at the Christmas party. 

In the northern hemisphere, all of the above remains true, but replace the fairisle jumper with a bikini and the chocolate with an icecream, and you’ve got yourself one fine Aussie Christmas. Imagine hearing Mariah on the radio in the middle of July but crank up the temperature a few notches, throw in a Christmas tree on the beach, and you’ve got it. Truly baffling. 

For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to get into the festive spirit, forcing Christmas music and half-heartedly decorating my room thanks to my Mumma’s handmade decs. But when you’ve got a fan on 24/7 and are applying the factor 30 left right and centre, it seems somewhat forced. 

Job Interview Struggles: What I've Learnt

Having quit my job as an Account Manager at a digital marketing agency to move to Sydney unemployed, I have had my fair share of job application mares. I have, however, learnt quite a few things about myself along the way which I hope you can both laugh at, empathise with and learn from.  

I’ve handed out so many CVs, applied online to umpteen roles and here I am, four weeks later, still unemployed and getting scarily close to the bottom of my savings. I've had three interviews so far; interviews for roles, which on paper, I am totally qualified for. But interviews which I have been far from successful in and have led me to reassess a few things about myself:

US Elections 2016: A day to remember for all the wrong reasons

Today, I watched the US election unfold in real time. Thanks to the time difference between USA and Australia, I saw America vote for their new president as it happened. No sudden horror when I awoke reminiscent of the Brexit vote, no exclamations that surely this can't be right, just a constant sinking feeling that what I was witnessing was actually happening; Trump was winning the vote. 

I'm not one to pretend I know the ins and outs of politics, and I hold my hands up and admit that my knowledge of political policies is far from perfect. This isn't a political piece outlining details, more than anything this is an opinion which highlights how deeply saddened I am at the fact one of the most influential countries in the world has voted for a man that believes women are inferior, global warming is a sham, and muslims should be banned from the US. I might not know a huge amount about politics, but what I do know is a few key facts. A few facts that point to Trump being a racist, homophobic, sexist pig. 

How To Be Happy: The Next Chapter

Though it’s easy to scoff at the horribly cliché title of this blog post, I’m hoping that if my life were in book form, the next few months would prove to be the ultimate page-turner. As a literature fiend, a truly sickening book metaphor seems to be the easiest way to shout out to the world that I’m moving to Australia. Cue the dramatic ‘duh, duh, duhhhhh’.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post that I chose not to publish. The basic tone of such post was I'm soo bored I hate my life woe is meeeee and nobody’s got time to listen to a measly excuse of a blogger waffling on about her sorrows when our lives are often hard enough to manage on their own. I was down in the dumps, unsatisfied, a grumpy grizzly, if you will. After a hefty few months of wallowing, I decided that my slightly unhinged and flat life needed a re-service. After all, do things really need to be 100% broken to warrant the need to be fixed?

In an attempt to bid farewell to the sulk, I culled everything that no longer made me happy because, let's cut to the chase here, it is completely okay to focus on your own happiness. You are allowed to travel and live where you want, spend your money on nice things or sometimes tell friends you just want a night in. To think about your own happiness doesn’t make you selfish, it encourages you to take control of your emotions. It is futile to push on believing that things will fix themselves if you just sit back and watch life pass by.

How to tell fear to do one

Life can be a pretty intimidating and daunting ride.

In our twenties, it’s unlikely we have any sense of direction, we are all pretty broke and we probably spend the majority of our free time crying 'WHY ME WHYYY' having necked about ten tequilas the night before. Ok, so the latter might just be me, but when life’s path isn’t fully laid out for us, anxiety can take over.

Where will we be in five years time? Are we ever going to pay off the debt we owe? Or find that one person who makes nothing else really matter to save us growing old with cats? (Crazy cat lady is my middle name, hi.) Yes, life can be pretty scary and there are many experiences that lie ahead that are bound to make our hearts skip a beat or stomachs turn twice over. But I’m certain that it’s the things that scare us the most, which are the most empowering once overcome.

In my opinion, if you’re not shitting yourself, you’re not experience something new.

The Importance of Being Mindful

So it’s the first day of a fresh new month. The sun is shining more than it’s raining, when we finish work at 5.30pm it’s still light outside and we are one month closer to summer. One might say we have quite a lot to be happy about. However, the reality is that no matter how bloody beautiful it is outside or how swimmingly well our lives are going, the twenty-first century human being has a habit of either dwelling on the past, or worrying about the future. The present ‘now’ doesn’t become a sincerely meaningful thing until tomorrow comes and it’s transformed into the past.

As humans, we are very very bad at appreciating the present moment. Actually, not even appreciating it but merely living it. Everything boils down to yesterday or tomorrow. But what about right now? Like, right this second? How are you feeling? The past has been and gone and you’re never going to create a time-machine, so really, the most important moments of our lives are the ones that we’re drifting straight through whilst our busy minds are set to autopilot.

Why every day should be International Women's Day.

I may be a day late, but really, what date this post is published is completely irrelevant. International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on the 8^th March and is a day that sees women and men alike raise their glasses to powerful women, be it Gloria Steinem, your own Mother, or the dinner lady, because let’s face it, every single woman is powerful and influential in one way or another.

I’m always conscious to write posts like this one, but then that insinuates I am embarrassed to be a woman with opinions and that in itself makes me angry. However, as the writer of a blog that attempts to position itself at the heart of sassy independence, I feel like it’s a matter that needs to be addressed. Note that I didn’t write female independence. Fluidity and humanity for the win.

The issue I have is that International Women’s Day is one singular day. One singular day that aims to bring to light contemporary issues such as domestic violence, sex trafficking and the gender pay gap, which, to a certain extent it  inevitably does. It is however, also a day that in turn leaves uneducated imbeciles to believe women are all ‘moan moan moan’, because where oh where is international men’s day? Please, behave. Oh, and International Men’s Day is November 19^th, FYI.

Me, myself and I

So as readers may or may not know, dependant on whether you are a personal friend/social media follower or not, I am currently on a business trip in Australia. I have been provided with a great opportunity to travel around Australia meeting with clients, old (and hopefully new), all independently.

For some, this might seem like a terrifying and intimidating experience. And for anyone that had a conversation with me prior to me departing on my Aussie adventure, you will know I was pretty much petrified. So far though, my experience has been wonderful. I’ve been on my own every day, have been eating on my own every night, and honestly, it’s been pretty nice.

What leads me to writing this post is a fairly embarrassing turn of events. If you’ve read my blog before, you will know that ‘embarrassing’ is basically my middle name. I’m a goofy, single loser who goes on plenty an awful date and am someone who uses these ‘hilarious’ stories as fuel for my blog. Winn-ing.