We're Not Doing Valentines Day This Year

It's Valentines Day. The day to celebrate love in all its forms and as I sit scrolling through Facebook, listening at T cooks dinner I don't feel upset at all that I didn't get flowers or anything like that.

Why?

And by I, I mean we. We are not doing Valentine's day.

As Valentine's day came closer and closer, I tried to think of what to get T and I couldn't think of anything. You see, T and I go out and buy things we want when we want them or after we've saved for them. We don't wait for a certain time of the year to give each other gifts. Often one of us will go out and come back with a milkshake or something for the other.

Last night, we were lying in bed with the dogs, crunch time was hanging over my head and I looked over at T and asked him if he wanted to do Valentine's day. He replied by asking if I wanted to do it and honestly I didn't.

When it comes to Romance, my idea of a great date is staying home, ordering takeout and watching the latest episode of Great British Bakeoff, while Arlo and Daphne sit with us. I don't like the fuss and the rizz of going somewhere fancy and spending a lot of money on food. It just doesn't do it for me.

I like simple. I like easy. I like being able to throw my hair up into a messy bun, slip on my jammies and just relax for the evening. I can't do that if we're going out for dinner. Plus, T hates having to dress up in a suit, so staying in was a better option.

That's not to say that we haven't done Valentines Day in the past. T surprised me the first Valentines day after we got together by sending me red roses and he did the same the following year before changing things up and getting me an eternity rose for my birthday/valentines day gift. As for me, I just sent him chocolates and biscuits. Last year he bought tickets for a wizards dinner for my birthday/valentines day and I got him something punny.

This year it's nice just to be able to do our own thing without having to worry about presents. It's nice just sitting here, getting Great British Bakeoff ready while T serves up dinner. It's just nice.

I've got to wrap this up because I can hear T grabbing knives and forks out of the draw but I didn't want to write this to make it seem as if I'm anti-Valentines day. I'm not. I love Valentine's day because I personally see it as a day that you can celebrate any kind of love.

I'm writing this to explain that even though I am looking at Facebook and seeing my sister-in-law's and friends all showing off their gifts, I am in no way jealous of them. I'm not at all upset that I'm not getting something physical because T and I are celebrating love in our own way. Everyone has their own way of showing that they love each other. For some, it's flowers and chocolates. For me and T, it's spending time together and wishing we were the taste testers on the Great British Bakeoff.

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)

Controversy on Married at First Sight

One of the biggest stories that everyone is talking about in Australia and the moment has to do with Married at First Sight. If you have never heard of the show or you have never seen the show, the premise is that experts put total strangers together to see if they can stay married or if it’s going to fail based on personality traits, etc. Or in my own own words, people create arranged marriages and see what drama is going to unfold.

If you can’t already tell, I’m not a fan of this show. I watch the Kardashians, Gogglebox and a few other reality TV shows, but I don’t watch Married at First Sight or the Bachelor or any shows that have that same kind of theme. I find those kinds of shows to be a huge mockery of marriage and love, so they don’t interest me at all.

Depsite my views on the show, my interest was piqued this week when Married at First Sight came up on Twitter’s trending page for Australia. Curious, I clicked and watched the 30-minute clip of one of the experts, Mel Schilling, calling out a man by the name of Bronson for calling his “wife” Ines and cunt because of how she was acting. Based on that 30-second clip that Channel Nine had put out, I was willing to back Schilling because I did agree that calling someone a cunt for no reason is not on in my book. I also agreed with her that Bronson needed to learn how to talk to women.

Then I did what I normally do and I started to scroll down to see what other’s thoughts were and I saw tweet after tweet defending him. It took me a while before I found a tweet that explained everything.

And I had to watch the episode.

It was hard to watch but I made it through and suddenly I found myself switching sides. Over the course of the wedding and the honeymoon, Ines was really horrible to Bronson. She was constantly swearing at him and belittling him over the course of the week and it seemed as if on the night he called her a cunt, he’d just had enough of her behaviour.

He called her a cunt once and was called out on national television. Ines on the other hand was given a pass.

I got mad. I really did. It seemed like such a double standard to me that Bronson was called out on his one comment and Ines, who had done a lot more, was allowed to just sit there and watch as Bronson was lectured on how he spoke to women. It seemed ridiculous to me that this was even happening.

Over the past few days I have been watching things unfold. Since the episode aired, many people have called for Shilling to be taken off the show. I was willing to agree with that point of view until I was looking into things today and learn that Schilling and the other experts are not privy to the footage is done outside of certain segments of the show. At the time she made those comments, she had no idea that Ines had been acting how she was acting. Her comments were based solely on what she had seen earlier. She saw that Bronson had made a disgusting comment and she decided to call him on it.

Knowing that information now, I can understand why she did what she did but it brings up more questions for me.

Why aren’t the experts looking at all the footage? If they were truly trying to use this as a social experiment, wouldn’t it make sense that they see all the footage in order to truly understand the decisions behind them staying or leaving? It just seems stupid that that is not the case. If experts are able to watch five-year-olds to better understand how they think on The Secret life of Five-Year-Olds then surely the experts on this show should be able to watch everything on Married at first sight. Surely that would give them better insight into whether their social experiment is a success or not? It would also allow people to see that the experts aren't being biased.

While I don’t think at this point in time that Schilling should be fired, I do think what the experts are seeing should be changed so they can get the full picture. I also think that in the next episode something needs to be done to address what had happened. Right now Channel Nine is in damage control and unless they do something people are going to continue believing that Schilling is biased.

The only bright side I’m really seeing to this whole thing is that have actually started people talking about domestic violence against men.

When we look at Domestic Violence, we tend to focus more on women and children being the victims and men being the abusers. We don't often see campaigns where women are the abusers. While statistically women and children are more likely to be victims, we also have a problem with men not reporting abuse against them in the home or any abuse against them that isn't physical (punches, etc).

In case you're wondering, I'm not going to watch any more Married at First Sight. I still have no interest in the show for reasons that I have already stated and this episode has not inspired me to want to watch any more. I will, however, be watching Twitter to see if things end up being rectified in the next episode.

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)

Our Dog Has Anxiety

When you decide to get a puppy, there are a lot of things that go through your mind. What kind of food are you going to buy? Are they going to be allowed on the furniture? Where are we going to go to train them? Do we want to look into doggy daycare?

Baby Arlo

Arlo was very much a spur of the moment decision, but it was something that T and I had been discussing for years. We knew we were going to get a Great Dane, we just weren't sure when. Then I saw Arlo and I knew that I had to pull the trigger then.

For the first month, I was still working and we spent half of that trying to help him get over a parasite he had caught at his breeder but hadn't shown any signs yet. After we conquered that, the next 3 months were spent trying to get him up to a healthy weight because he was constantly growing and looked as if we were starving him as a result. We're now at a point where he's completely healthy, but it was a hard few first months with our "firstborn".

One of the things we were not expecting was anxiety.

Since getting the diagnosis, we have learnt that Great Danes are a breed that can get anxiety. Despite their big size, the whole Scooby Doo steroetype can be extremely true, especially in Arlo's case.

To T and I, we always knew that Arlo was skittish. We joked about it with family saying that he just doesn't like change, especially after it took us a week to coax him back into the kitchen after we got a new fridge. He hates any kind of box and will climb up on the couch like a woman in an old movie who has seen a mouse until the box is gone. His separation anxiety, that we didn't know was that bad, got to the point where he was barking so much a neighbour called the council and reported it and he nearly got a nuisance dog order.

What really set things over for us was when he had to come out to my parent's house because his barking was so bad and T had to work late. He just couldn't relax and one day while we were cleaning out the shed in preparation for my parents move, he didn't lay down one. He stayed standing the entire time. I told T and he thought it was just a case of things being out of routine and I was willing to accept that, until my Mum said something.

My parents had noticed how Arlo was. He wasn't aggressive, but it was obvious that he was not handling the few days on the farm well. It was then I decided that we had to do something, so I booked us in with our vet.

When I explained everything to him, he said that it was definitely worrying but not unfixable. He was showing a lot of the signs of anxiety and it was a good thing we had brought him in early because it meant that we could start working with him to help him through it.

It started off with us putting him on doggy prozac as well as recognising what his triggers were and then helping him through them. Loud noises were no issue, so it came down to new things in his environment and dogs barking.

With the new things, we would coax him in and then reward him with affection when he would get closer and closer. Food doesn't work. His fight or flight instincts kick in and he's not interested in eating. So there are so many loveies given. This has worked out so well for us because the last new thing that came into the house only resulted in him avoiding it for three days instead of seven, so progress is happening.

When it comes to barking, its all about distraction. Most of his barking happens in the backyard, so when we hear it, we call him to us and reward him when he comes. It distracts him from what he was doing and his barking stops. This unfortunately only works when we're home and, as much as we don't want to use it, we do use a vibration collar on the days that T and I work in order to keep his barking under control.

Our decision to do this did not come easy. Despite all the toys and our other dog Daphne, nothing that we had out there in the backyard was distracting enough or safe enough to help with his barking. We tried the radio on in the kitchen, that just made him more upset. More toys in the back yard just ended in a stuffy massacre. In the end, a lot of research went into the decision of a vibration collar on a low setting, just enough to get his attention away from what was causing him to bark.

Now, it doesn't shock him and it still allows him to have those protective "this is my house" barks when someone comes to the door while we're at work, but it cuts down on the other ones where he would kind of get stuck on a loop when a bird was on the fence or something like that. We also didn't just put it on him and hope it didn't hurt him. T tested it on himself before putting it on Arlo for the first time, to ensure that the setting wasn't going to hurt him.

The good news is that with me being home more days than I am out working now, it means that we are not using his collar as much as we were the last 3 months of the work year last year and can focus on our distraction method a lot more. It's been suggested that we see a behaviouralist vet to give us a little help, so now it's just a matter of us finding the right one.

So how is he now? We still have a long way to go, but Arlo is slowly getting there. He is no longer on his doggy prozac and we now manage his anxiety in other ways. He's never really had an issue with dogs but he's slowly getting used to being around people other than family. It's just a matter of exposure and praise. He doesn't like walking past the train station, so we drive to the dog park instead so he doesn't freak out and they get a longer play with their friends.

We still joke about Arlo not liking change but it's our way of trying to get people to truly understand what we're going through with him.

Many people don't understand that dogs get anxiety, just as much as people do. It's hard for them to understand that it's something that happens and comes in all shapes and sizes, just like the dogs.

Now, while what we're going with Arlo may not work for you, knowing that you're not going through it alone is always good and is what helped me through a lot of this! There are a lot of groups out there for support and ideas on how to handle doggy anxiety. Its through these groups that I'm hoping to get new ideas so that by the end of the year we are no longer using the vibration collar while we're at work.

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)

Big Papa's Food Truck

If you are ever in Western Sydney and it's Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, keep an eye out for Big Papa's Food Truck. 

Big Papa's food truck icon from their Facebook page. 

T and I were introduced to Big Papa's by T's brother mid last year and I think we will forever be in his debt for that. They are primary a burger truck, but they make some of the best burgers that I had ever had. 

Now, I'm not a beef burger person. I grew up on my mother's homemade burgers and she would put french onion soup in with her eggs and breadcrumbs to flavor them, so I find a lot of burger lacking in taste. When it comes to Big Papa's burgers however, I find myself loving each one they try.

They have 5 different burgers that they always have on offer, along with kids burgers, loaded fries and the option to make your burger into a combo with fries and a drink. However, every so often they throw in some new burgers for a limited time. This week they had one called doughnut time, where instead of a burger bun they used a glazed doughnut. 

Doughnut Time Burger.
Picture Credit: Big Papa's Food Truck

I'm a big fan of their El Gringo (I'm sorry if I've misspelled that!) burger which is just delicious! I'm also always on the lookout for their Tropic Thunder burger for a fried chicken change. T loves the El Gringo as well but his favorite is the Rib burger, whose name is escaping me and I can't find! 

They're always adding new burgers for a change and they move around so that different places get a chance to try their burgers, and I'm pretty sure they do it just to build up anticipation for when they'll be nearby next. 

While you always have to keep an eye on their social media to find out where they are going to be, when they are ner by, T and I will always go and get their burgers for dinner. 

To find out more about Big Papa's Food Truck you can find them on Facebook and Instagram.

Until next time, 

(aka - Sophie)

29 Things I Want to do This Year

I'm such a strange introvert. I enjoy going out with family and friends and having a good time, but then I'll just want to spend a week at home not being around people. So when I decided I wanted to write a list of things that I wanted to do this year, I realised that a lot of the things are stuff that I can do that is a good mixture of out and about and hiding in seclusion.

Before I show you the list, I want to say that a couple of things on there are things I have talking about in my goals for the year in January, but not all of them are on there. The reason for that is that most of the things on those lists I did were just things that I would like to get done but I'm not going to feel bad if I don't. These are things that I really want to do this year.

1. Read 26 books

I wrote about this on my Reading Goals for this year but I wanted to put it down here as well just so I had the complete list. This is something that I really want to complete because I do like to read a lot.

2. Climb Sydney Harbour Bridge

I've had this on my bucket list for a long time. I've lived in Sydney on and off for years and I have never actually gone ahead and done this. So before I turn 30 I want to climb all the way to the top.

3. Write a book

I don't know what it is, but I'm really feeling inspired to write this year. With all this inspiration, I feel like I can actually complete the first draft of a book this year before I turn 30.

4. Go see a show at the theatre

There are so many great shows out at the moment. One of my Nephews recently went to see Willy Wonka and it looked like so much fun, so with or without T, I want to go see something.

5. Eat at Zumbos

Last year T and I binge watched Zumbos Sweet Deserts on Netflix. It's really made us want to go into the city and eat at his restaurant. At some point this year we're going to do it... maybe for T's birthday?

6. Start learning to play the piano

When I was 11 I started to learn, but I didn't have the want to practice. For the past 5 years, I've been wanting to start up once again. Only this time I'm thinking more of teaching myself more than going out and getting a teacher.

7. Start learning Australian Sign Language

I have always loved Sign Language. When I was 8, we had a teacher choreograph a sign language performance for our end of year concert. It was one of my most favourite things that I ever learned. Since then, I've forgotten the performance but I do want to get back into it because I think it's a language that is very useful throughout life.

8. Do Blogilates 3 times a week

I am not an overly physical person and I don't like doing group classes. It's why I love Blogilates. It's portable, I can do it easily and if I only have twenty minutes to do a workout, I can find some space in the house and a video that fills in that time.

9. Do the ghost tour at Quarantine Station

This is another thing that I have had on the back burner for the past few years. Quarantine Station is this place near Manly that used to be where you would go back in the day to be quarantined before being let out into the general public. Many people died there because of disease and supposedly the place is haunted. I love a good ghost tour, so this place as been on my list for a long time. The added bonus to this whole thing is that you can actually spend the night in cabins there if you want to. I'm not sure if I can talk T into that, but who knows.

10. Go to the Justice and Police Museum

I discovered Sydney had this place a few months ago and have been wanting to go ever since. It's only open on the weekends though so I haven't been able to make the trip into the city like I want to. However this year, with or without someone, I'm going to make the trek and go into the city and have a wander through!

11. Ghost Tour and sleep over and Monte Cristo

Monte Cristo is the first truly haunted place that I have ever stepped into. I went there for a school excursion with my Mum and she still says that in one of the rooms, she felt someone tapping her on the shoulder. I haven't been back since, but I've recently learned that they do night tours and you can sleep over in the house, so it's been added to my bucket list.

12. Visit a medium

If you haven't already guessed, I do kind of love the supernatural side of things. I've been learning how to read tarot cards recently and the place that I go to get a lot of my "hippy" things as T calls them has mediums. Sometime this year I want to go in and talk to one.

13. Learn to crochet

I can knit. Knitting is easy. I just never have been able to crochet. So that is my next challenge.

14. Go to the Gold Coast to ride rollercoasters

This has been on the list for a while, since they opened the new Superman rollercoaster up there. T and I love roller coasters and rides like that in particular. I swear through the whole ride, but I enjoy it so much.

15. Loose 10kgs

I am fully aware that at this point in my life I am obese. I look in the mirror and do feel like I'm overly so, but I'm also aware that I'm larger than what I should be. Last year I managed to go from 102kgs to 93.5 kgs and it was a hard slog on my own. This year, I'm going it with a group and I'm so ready to start losing the weight to get it off, both for health reasons and for other reasons that have already been mentioned.

16. Pierce my ears and nose

My goal since I was a teen was to have my ears pierced 3 times and this year, I want to complete that goal. For the past 3 years, I have been putting a lot of thought into getting my nose done and I think I'm going to go ahead with it.

17. Do treetops at Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo is an amazing place, and they have this above ground obstacle course that you can run. It looks like so much fun, so I'd like to give that a go.

18. Hold a koala

I have felt a koala, but I have never held one. As much as I'm aware that they can be cranky, I still want to cuddle one!

19. Go to the snow

I hate the cold. I really do. But T hasn't been snowboarding in over a year and I know he is desperate to go back, so I'm willing to brave the snow for him. Plus I want to build a snowman.

20. Finish the legacy challenge on the sims

I have had poor Averie Thorne sitting unplayed on my computer for about a month now. The poor woman just wants to live her life and become an evil mastermind. It's only fair that I allow her and the generations after her to complete this legacy.

21. Watch a horror movie

I'm not a fan of horror movies. I don't see what is fun about being scared. T, on the other hand, loves them and I think I'm going to allow him to choose one movie that we watch together that is horror related.

22. Assemble a large puzzle

I love puzzles. They're a lot of fun, I just haven't done a huge one in ages!

23. Assemble a lego creator package

Lego for me is on the same level as puzzles. I just find it fun to put everything together.

24. Watch every episode of Supernatural

From episode 1 right up until their current season, I'm going to be watching the Winchester brothers!

25. Throw a surprise party

This is kind of already in the works. Shhh!

26. Go to Vivid

Vivid is this light show that is put on every year throughout Sydney. Last year, T and I went and saw it on the Harbour and it was beautiful. This year I'd like to go and check out Taronga and maybe go a big earlier and tour the zoo at the same time.

27. Go to Madi Gras

They're not far off and it's something I've been wanting to go in and see for so long!

28. Go watch the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Last year, T and I got the chance to go and watch the Sydney Symphony Orchestra perform while we watched Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back. We've recently discovered that in August they're doing Return of the Jedi, and I really want to go!

29. Donate Blood

When I was in high school, we had the chance to sign up and donate blood and I did it for the last two years I was there. Since then I haven't done it because after one donation I was really light headed and didn't want to do it again for a while. Well, it's been nearly 10 years and I'd like to go and do it again!

So there we go, the full list of things that I would love to do this year. Do you have anything that you want to do this year? I'd love to hear about them!

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)

Little Boys and Dolls

Picture Credits: Swords and Snoodles

You see this picture? It was shared by a friend of mine on facebook and the moment I saw it, I shared it on my own profile.

Over the past 9.5 years that I've worked as a Nanny, one of the biggest things that I have had to combat with both parents and children it the idea that things are gendered. That there are boy things and there are girls things.

Here's the thing, there are no boy things or girl things. They're just things that we as adults have put a gender on and then marketed towards that gender. Developmentally, nothing bad is going to happen to your child if you little boy plays with dolls.

In actual fact, you'll find that he is developing social skills as well as gross and fine motor skills. Playing with dolls is an amazing tool that we like to use in childcare because it helps children to develop empathy when they care for the doll. It develops social skills when they play barbies or mums and dad. Fine motor skills are developed through dressing and undressing dolls while gross motor are used through movement of the dolls.

Children also do this think known as mimicking, where they will copy things that they have seen their parents or other adults doing through their play. You see this a lot with young kids pretending to breastfeed their own babies, whether they're a boy or a girl, because they've seen their mum doing it. It can cause a little giggle but it is a part of them developing.

I grew up on a farm with two brothers and most of the time we only had each other to play with. Many people might read that and think that I spent a lot of time play with cars and pretending to be a superhero, and while that is partly true, my brothers also spent a lot of time playing dolls and dress-ups with me. In fact, in terms of the dress ups, they didn't really fight me when I said we were getting dressed into dresses for some reason or another. They would just go along with it.

Part of the power of being an older sister I guess.

The Barbie my brother J loved.
Picture credit: Pinterest

Even though that makes it sound like I would force them to do these things, they often came willingly to play with my dolls. My brother J had a favourite Barbie (a black bubble fairy barbie) that he always had to play with not matter what. My other brother B spent 12 months of his life stealing my favourite doll, the baby born that I had saved my birthday money for, and taking it to bed with him despite my annoyance. That thankfully ended when my Grandparents bought him his own doll, a boy doll he called Lissy after our friends new baby girl Larissa.

None of these things did anything to affect my brother's sexuality and the reason for that is that if they were gay, it was because that was how they were born, not because they had played Barbies with me as a child.

Now if you've read all this and you're still annoyed at your little boy playing dolls, allow me to share this little tidbit of information.

Before World War 2, little boys were dressed in pink and little girls were dressed in blue. Blue was seen as more feminine and dainty while pink was seen as a stronger colour. Then the war hit and suddenly on the other side little boys were dressed in blue and little girls in pink because manufacturers decided to change it. Thats right, this whole change was due to how something was marketed to you.

There is also a train of thought that many people believe that it changed due to Hitler as, during the War, Hitler used pink triangles to on bands to identify homosexuals. You can kind of see how the leap is then made.

At the end of the day it is up to you as a parent to decide what is best for your child, but please keep in mind that by saying something isn't for boys or something isn't for girls is molding them to believe that. Everything that you say to your child molds the way they are going to think. You're also taking away a developmental tool that is very helpful for them to learn skills that they need in their lives. 

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)

5 ON FRIDAY | True Crime Podcasts

A few years ago when I was blogging, I took part in a link party called Five on Friday. Since then I've been trying to find it, but from my digging around I've discovered that it's died down.

I really enjoyed doing it at the time. It was a way for me to come up with one subject and list five things to do with it. Often it was five great things that had happened during to week.

I still want to take part in this so I thought I would just do my own and if someone comments that it's still going, I'll join up and join in.

This week I wanted to share five of my favourite True Crime Podcasts.

For the past few years, I have done a lot of drive to and from work. Often spending over two hours a day going to and from work. Podcasts became a way for me to pass the time as I drive, as often I can get bored listening to music all the time.

This year it's going to be a lot easier, but I still enjoy listening to podcasts, only now I'm doing it as I'm studying or writing blog posts or researching things for The Bulletin Board.

1. Casefile

Picture Credit: iTunes

While Serial was the podcast to get me into True Crime podcasts, Casefile was the first podcast that I listened to that became one that I listened to each week. Told in a narration style, the Casefile team do an amazing job with the research and telling the case, while being respectful to the victims. You can find out more about the podcast HERE.

2. Australian True Crime

Picture Credit: iTunes

I discovered Australian True Crime late last year and I'm so sad that I didn't discover them sooner. Meshel Laurie and Emily Web cover True Crime through interviews with law enforcement, survivors, victims families, families of criminals, journalists and man other avenues. It gives a broad look at the many aspects of True Crime and has introduced me to a number of people who have been involved in a variety of cases. You can find out more about the podcast HERE.

3. Last Podcast on the Left

Picture Credit: Last Podcast on the Left

I discovered Ben, Marcus and Henry when I was having car problems and was having to take a LOT of public transport. Their particular brand of humour, mixed in with their True Crime and horror topics have helped me pass many hours of driving and sitting on a bus. I will admit, that their brand of humour is not always for everyone, but for me personally, I enjoy the depth of research that they do to put out the episodes. You can find out more information about the podcast HERE.

4. Wine and Crime

Picture Credit: Wine and Crime

Now I'm not normally one for a lot of chatter when it comes to my True Crime podcasts. The chatting the boys from Last Podcast on the Left do it probably as far as I can go, but when I discovered the girls from Wine and Crime I just fell in love. They cover a theme a week, go into the psychology and have a bit of a laugh at the same time (never at the expense of the victim, however). You can find out more about the podcast HERE.

5. Criminology

Picture Credit: Criminology Facebook Page

I have been hearing a lot about Criminology since the Golden State Killer was discovered as they were covering the case when he was arrested. I'm halfway through the first season on the Zodiac Killer and it's quickly becoming a favourite. They do a great job at research and really go into depth about the cases that they are covering. You can find out more information about the podcast HERE.

I have a lot of other podcasts that I love and I'll more than likely share them at a later date, but these are the ones that I'm always going back to to regularly listen to or that I'm currently loving.

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)

The Wishing Tree

Yesterday for my birthday there were only two things that I wanted - cheesecake and sushi. I'm a simple girl with simple needs. Having had cheesecake earlier in the day, T and I headed out to have Sushi and then afterward we got Gelato.

Deciding that we'd take a walk while we ate, we walked into the Westfield where we parked and discovered this wishing tree. We'd completely missed it on our way out forty minutes earlier when we'd walked out of the mall. It drew our attention and we both walked over to have a look.

I'd known for a while that the day before my birthday is Chinese New Year and while it's not something that is celebrated by myself or many of the people I know, I still enjoy seeing the decorations and traditions that come with it. When I used to live on the Northern Beaches, I didn't see things like this up in the local malls, so it intrigued me to see what it was all about.

It wasn't until we got closer that I saw that it was a wishing tree. People would write their wishes for the new year on a car and then place it on the branches. It was so beautiful and vibrant, I'm still surprised that T and I missed it earlier in the evening.

As we ate, we circled the tree looking at peoples wishes and it was surprised at how many of them lacked selfishness. Now there were a few of them that asked for wealth and good grades, things that that person wanted personally, but then they would ask for health and peace for their families or the world. Some were written by children and were completely innocent - one child wished for a unicorn stuffy while another was wishing for a baby brother.

There were a few asking that they find love or could have a baby. I don't know how long we spend circling like vultures around this tree but it was just something really nice to finish off the day.

We, unfortunately, didn't get a chance to make our own wishes. The tags had long since been taken when everything else in Westfield had closed for the night, so that was a little upsetting. So what I wanted to do here was make my own tag and create my own Wishing Tree post.

The picture above was created using Canva, which is a great site that has a lot of graphics that you can use for free. I make a lot of the graphics on this blog with Canva. So if you wanted to use it to make your own online wish you can find it on the Templates page.

If you do use the template please tag me or let me know! I would love to see it! You can find all the details for my social media in the left column!

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)

29 Years

I've been trying to work out a way to begin this post for the past few days, but I'm kind of coming up with a mental block. I'm going to give this a go anyway!

It's 8:20am in the morning and although I've been up for over an hour, I've really only just been out of bed long enough to get a chai latte and sit down at my laptop to start writing this up. So far, 29 doesn't feel any different than 28.

I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe some crushing feeling that I'm so close to 30, because for some reason most of my life had been looking at 30 and thinking that I'm getting old. Maybe it's because of where I grew up. In rural NSW you generally do things a lot earlier than many people. Babies, marriage, buying a house, getting new cars. Everything seems to happen in your 20's so by the time you reach 30 you can just look forward to the rest of your life.

That hasn't happened to me. If fifteen-year-old Sophie could see twenty-nine-year-old Sophie, she would be slightly disappointed that I haven't traveled or done all the things that I wanted to do at that age. One day I may actually introduce you to fifteen-year-old me, she was... interesting... but that is a post for another day.

So I have no impressing feelings of oldness on me. I feel exactly the same as I did yesterday, with the exception of having a few new bruises thanks to Alro's need to be horizontal in bed rather than vertical. In fact, if I'm completely honest, I'm actually kind of excited for this year. I don't know why. I just am. I've woken up in this amazing mood.

Right now though, I'm just looking forward to going out later today to look for Sushi Train and Cheese Cake. I'm an easy girl to please!

I'm going to leave things here. Being so early in the morning I really have nothing else to add. No photos of what I have done. Nothing. I doubt if there will be anything else to add to this day anyway because while I get the day off, T is off to work.

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)

Reading Goals 2019

I'm a bookwork. I'm not ashamed to say it. One of my favourite things to do is to sit with a cup of tea and read for a couple of hours. Every year I join in on Goodreads Book Reading Challenge and I never make it to my goal.

Mainly because I expect myself to be able to read one book per week.

This year is different because I'm setting myself a different set of parameters and sharing them here so I can be held accountable.

1. Read 26 books
1 book every two weeks - this is a little more attainable than one book every week.

2. 6 out of 26 have to be Non-Fiction
I don't read a lot of Non-Fiction, unless you count true crime. I need to branch out a little more and include these just for a change.

3. I want to read 5 books off the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge list
I love this challenge! You can find a link to the book list above but the idea is to read the books that are mentioned in the TV series Gilmore Girls (one of my favourite shows!)

4. Three of the books have to be books from a genre that I don't normally read
I'm very guilty of sticking to crime and thriller style books. Branching out to new genres may allow me to find some new authors.

5. Three of the books have to be Romance
I'm not a fan of Romance books. Nothing personal but they're just not my thing but I need more variety so I'm going to have a go.

6. I have to 3 books from my to-be-read pile
Like any bibliophile, I have a large pile of books that are just waiting to be read. I need to bring them down a little bit so I can grow it once more.

If you're interested in seeing the full list of books that I've chosen then you can seen them down below

2019 Reaching Challenge

Sophie's favorite books »

Until next time,

(aka - Sophie)