#1 On Stranger Tides

I couldn't decide on a title because I really wanted to knock another POTC title off the list and I also really wanted start a bucket list. So as a wise child carefully selected by an advertising company once said...

I'm going to finish off my holiday pictures with a one from each city - no mockery about the declining quality please.

Because Florence was a dead city due to it being Christmas and Italians being highly religious, all we did was eat more pasta and celebrate Christmas. Instead of one of the billion selfies that always end up being taken in a club, here's a photo I stole from Kevin of the typical tourists holding up the leaning tower of Pisa.

Demonstrating a range of expressions

And then we visited Lucerne and caught a glimpse of the alps. Unfortunately, the weather was too unfriendly for us to climb Mt. Pilatus which was a little disappointing.

On the famous Chapel bridge that almost burnt down completely - even with its extreme proximity to water

And then the beautiful city of Paris. There are literally a thousand photos on my iPhone from Paris and I'm sure there are plenty more on the cameras. Everything is just so ridiculously symmetrical. And the grass is so green. The whole city is set out so perfectly, it might as well be a movie set. If I was bothered I'd dedicate a real post to Paris. But I have a poor track record, so I won't promise anything.

A demonstration of my "artistic" photography skills, captured by the exquisite iPhone 4S camera

And I'll break my rule with a 2nd photo from Paris because...

Look! The Relay store from Sydney train stations. But in Parisian gare (because I speak French now)

And finally wrapping up both our European adventures and the year in the splendidly miserable city of London.

Cold. Raining. Big Ben. Red Double Decker. Check, check, check and check.

And then I went back to America and back to Sydney and fast forward 6 months I'm starting a bucket list. The original title for my bucket list post was actually going to be "#1 Visit All The Continents In the World By 25" - so for those who thought the first item on my bucket list was to be on stranger tides - haha.

Noone actually thought so did they?

My future

Either way, for anyone whose keeping score and still unsure (I should become a rapper) - I'm 20 and I've been to Australia (of course), Asia, North America and Europe. In the next 5 years, I must visit South America, Africa and Antarctica. I'm so excited and will be truly disappointed in my 25 year old self if I fail.

In other news I promised a Cat Post to a friend in my mentally impaired pre-exam state and as I am no oath-breaker, watch out for that!

The Green Light

You know what's brilliant about this title?
That it refers to both Harry Potter (Avada Kedavra) and to The Great Gatsby which I recently watched.

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning ——”

And I must say to all those people who didn't like the movie, I thought it was quite brilliant. The voice overs, the energy, the costuming it was almost my imagination come to life.

And to Leonardo Dicaprio, well darling you haven't aged a day since you last starred in a massive period movie, that being Titanic.

That being said, I'm curious as to how many people actually read the book before watching the movie because I might just poke my nose in the air, once more as I'm won't to do (but that may be because that my fringe has gotten so long it's eating my face but the time is never right to get it cut. I feel like Lucius Malfoy and his wig. I'm going to develop a crick and have arthritis before I'm 20) and say 'Why yes darling, I read it at the age of 15, it was quite the enchanting book and Fitzgerald just has a way with words doesn't he?'

In other news, the exercise regime is currently...on hiatus. I suppose that would be how you put it.

We currently feel and look like this cat called Snoopy from somewhere in Asia that reminds me of a loaf of bread

Exams and final assessments came along and we were like, when the assessment period is over. But now we need to start running for city2surf so we need shoes of quality to pound the pavement. Another brilliant excuse is that it's winter and it's too hard to get up and out of bed when it's so much warmer under the covers.

So now the lazy habits are taking over. Such as I've finished Sherlock Holmes and I have begun Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, it's one of my 'OMG! $6 for a Vintage Classics book? Oh my, keep your bloomers on darlings.'

I've also decided to report on my experiments with The T2 trials of blooming/blossoming tea leading to what is called Chrysanthemum Burst.

Chrysanthemum Burst. I'm too lazy to take pretty pictures these days, especially as I'm always in a mobile device and truthfully the image quality just isn't up to par.

It's the photo from the T2 site, but it looks much more... Exciting in real time. One of the things I think T2 are forgetting with this is that, one of the influencing factors for the blossoming tea market is the beauty which they haven't quite managed. It's looks very bland, sure it blooms but it's all muted greens and white. The others ones I've tried are all lovely, with bright yellow flowers or spots of pink.

The flavour is strong, it flavours more teapots than they claim unless you like the heaviness because to me, tea is a refreshing, it flavours the water. You take a sip and the taste washes across your palate, hinting at something more, something deeper, more subtle. Then you swallow and it goes down smoothly and warms or refreshes you. It's not like coffee or soft drinks where it's an explosion in your mouth.

I don't know how many cups I brewed simply refilling my pot and waiting for it to steep to perfection every time.

Side note for your entertainment: Second picture of Snoopy the cat which reminds me of Michael Ling and the captions just fit him to a tee.

At World's End

Picking up from where I left off about 5 and a half months ago, I think we were stuck in Prague, it was the 18th of December 2012 and the world was about to end (according to the Mayans) !!!

And so we thought, why not drink our sorrows away at the Oktoberfest capital of the world (Munich) with the incredibly heavy 1L steins?

HB for Hofbräuhaus

Oh and then we checked out all the Cathedrals that started to blur into one...

...checked out some crazy -3 degrees surfers...

...and bought our beautiful dirndls (the proper name for those beer maid outfits).

A sneak peak because there are no other decent photos

We also visited a crazy king's castle... 

Unfortunately this was the last photo I took before my phone decided it wanted to switch off

...and even climbed a mountain to get some amazing views from Marien's Bridge! The photos are out there somewhere but it pretty much looked like this:

and if you're wondering why that looks so oddly familiar... its because Disney loved the Neuschwanstein castle too!

Anyway, we got to Venice on the very last day of existence. So I spent all my money on a Prada bag.

I never said I was a photographer... 

But saved a few euros for Venetian masks...

Lace...

...and ceramic

Oh and also check out the Venice of course.

Literally the only photo I took in Venice - no time for photos on the last day of the Earth right?

And then the world just fucking ended.