My Name Is Amy And I Am An Addict...

It's official, I'm addicted to all things Mink Pink!!! I have bought the cream shirt, the floral shorts, the sunflower skirt and lilac shorts recently but have my eye on a few other things that we have just got in. For instance a white lace type top which will be fab when summer comes around again! I'd wear it with the floral shorts too so that's an outfit! (My mother always told me never to buy something I couldn't put into an outfit, this normally results in me buying more than one thing! Maybe it's not good advice!) I could also wear it with the super cute lilac shorts!! I <3 the sunflower skirt! I think it might end up being my go to skirt next summer and it works with tights too so happy days! I love this cream shirt, it's ridiculously soft and goes with everything! :D I also can't wait to wear my mint shirt over dresses for the summer! Yes the recurring theme here is anticipation for summer!!! 

But I have bought wintery things too. Like a leather skirt which is a copy of a Mink Pink one by Sunny Girl which doesn't look as nice as the MP one but it's cheaper so what the heck! Also got two All About Eve jackets pretty cheap too so now I'm nice and snug for my walk to work! Always good! I'll probably send one home once winter is passed and hold on to one for just incase!! :)

In other news my Dad got the t-shirt that I sent him and is super happy with it, what more could I ask!? So chuffed with that! And speaking of Dads, Conor's Dad is coming to visit for a week on Weds! Very exciting! His sister got to Melbourne maybe two weeks ago so now it'll be quite the little reunion for them all which is lovely! So I think the plan is to do something like the Great Ocean Road next weekend or loads of other touristy things so it should be fun either way!

We have also decided that Conor is not going to take sponsorship if it is offered to him and that we are going to do our farm work so that we have the option of doing a second year here. We are debating the possibilities of going to New Zealand or Canada for a year. The world is our oyster and all that! That being if Conor decides he doesn't want to go back to college or wants to delay it a bit further. The idea of going home long term has us both worried about whether or not we would be working and whether we would get sucked back into being depressed just being there. Obviously we will go home to visit before we go anywhere else because although I'm not homesick I do miss everyone and most definitely will not be waiting two years to see them again!!

But for now we shall have to just work out what kind of farm work to do and where and hope that we get a good place to save money and to have a bit of fun too. I have to say I'm looking forward to doing something different but I'm under no illusions as to how difficult it will be. It will be an experience and that's what travelling is all about!! I'm hoping to leave for our farm work by the end of August but the more that I think about it the more I wonder why we don't go in the next three weeks. Neither of us is so happy in our job that we should put it off so why not go early and then give ourselves loads of time to enjoy our summer after? Perhaps I'm getting a bit carried away there now of course because we haven't looked into it yet properly at all! It's on my to do list!

But back to the present time, everything is changing in work. Our buyer and designer Romayne is leaving as she is going to Paris in September (lucky her) so we are having a few drinks tonight to celebrate with her which should be fun! And my manager Becca left last week to do her farm work so we have a new manager, a girl from Cork called Aoife. She seems nice so far. I reckon I'll be the next to go although I think one of the girls is looking for a new job which I hope she gets so they'll have a total shuffle around to do!!!

Think that's all my updates for now! Oh yes and here are my pictures for the photo a day June challenge! I'm doing the July one now and have my sister doing it too although she's keeping up with it much better than I am!! Whoops! Oh and if your wondering how I made this collage I did it with Photovisi after saving my photos to my laptop using Web.stagram! Happy snapping!

Amy :) x

Father's Day and other ramblings!

So at home its Father's Day on Sunday, something my lovely family neglected to tell me until Monday!!! So I did some very last minute internet shopping and I fink I found him something he'll like! It's a t-shirt from an Irish website called Road Race Ireland of all his favourite road racers TT wins! For those of you who don't know what the TT is it's an annual motorbike road racing event in the Isle of Mann. So yes hopefully that will arrive on time, and I of course turned to my old faithful Moonpig to sort out a card! I really do have too much fun making those cards! I already have his birthday card made for July! Back to my normal organisation! Ahh! So anyway, I ramble, here's a picture of the t-shirt, I think it looks rather like the Jack Daniels t-shirt too which is cool!

This month we've started to talk about our options for staying here. So we either have to do our farm work, hopefully before summer or we'll bake out in the heat all day, and get to stay here for a second year or else Conor's boss is talking about possibly sponsoring him so that we could stay as long as we like, which is not something we can turn down without a lot of thought, if it does happen! So we've been trying to weigh everything up and decide what we want! It kind of all depends on whether Conor wants to go back to college or not, because if he does it would be Sept '13 that he would be hoping to start, meaning he would have to go through an interview for a place on the course as a mature student, most likely in February '13! I think! Ahh!! We have put all the options on the table and not ruled out or decided on any! We're extremely organised as a couple in case you haven't guessed that already! But we have decided that if he does get sponsored and he's not going for the college interview this year, we will go home for Christmas which would be lovely! Although either way we'll be going home, because he will not be going home without me in February! Ha! Least I've decided on one thing!

So my hours in work have been cut, which I'm pretty disappointed with but not too much I can do really but I think I shall have to get back on to SEEK and start looking for a new job, perhaps something Mon-Fri so I'll actually get to spend my weekends with Conor and get to do stuff with other people for my days off!!! Oh the novelty! Ha!

So in line with my shorter hours and the fact that we are struggling to save money, we are going to look for an apartment with cheaper rent in the next few weeks! Although we love this apartment and how close it is to everything we reckon it makes sense! And there seems to be a few nice ones going at the moment for at least $100 cheaper a week!! I'll take that, and possibly run with it! So hoping to get a place with another couple and hopefully not as much of a disaster as our current housemates! The Irish ones are great craic but the Chileans are kind of hard work! They aren't the most thoughtful about when they bring people around and they are constantly stoned or having people over to get stoned! Even midweek which is a bit shit because we all work midweek, especially poor Conor who gets up at 5.30 every morning! So yes they're driving us a little nuts! So we reckon all of these things are good reasons to pack up and move on!!

I have been having loads of fun with Instagram for the last month and now I'm using a colour splash app too so I feel a bit stuck to my phone, although I really only do it on my tram rides or when I'm on my own, otherwise I would be just plain antisocial!! I'm constantly looking for things I can take photos of or mess around with which is cool too but I feel a bit lame at times just stopping to take photos!! But anyway, here's some of my favourite pics! The top row are my Colour Splash pics and then the rest are the instagram ones!

 So they're not great by most standards, but I'm pretty fond of them! Ha!


So yes, there's my ramblings for today, and seems as how it's now 00.50 I think it's time I hit the hay! Good night people!!


Amy :)

May!!! :)

So here's my attempt at photo a day May from Fat Mum Slims blog! Have to say I rather enjoyed the challenge!! So I will be doing the photo a day June challenge! Loads of fun!

So here is the list! #1 Peace, #2 skyline, #3 something you wore today, #4 fun!, #5 bird, #6 you, #7 someone that inspires you, #8 a smell you adore, #9 something you do everyday, #10 a favourite word, #11 kitchen, #12 something that makes you happy, #13 mum, #14 grass, #15 love, #16 what you're reading, #17 snack, #18 something you made, #19 a favourite place, #20 something you can't live without, #21 where you stand, #22 pink, #23 technology, #24 something new, #25 unusual, #26 12 o'clock, #27 something sweet, #28 the weather today, #29 a number, #30 your personality, #31 something beautiful.
Now that's a mouthful and a half!!!

And here's the list for June! Anyone on Instagram feel free to join in!! :) So yes May has been lots of fun! Got all new housemates and have got to know the people I work with much better! So our new house mates are two couples again, one couple from Ireland who we have great fun with, and the second couple are from Chile. We haven't got to know them too well yet as there is a bit of a language barrier sometimes but they seem pretty nice!

I went out this weekend with the girls from work for one of their birthdays which was loads of fun, but my god did I suffer yesterday and today for it! I have never really had a hangover before, but I am now convinced they were storing up to hit me all at once, yesterday! I failed to function for an entire day, such a waste but it was a fun night!

We had a night out for our old housemates moving home too. I am very jealous, they are travelling around Asia and uploading wonderful pictures as they do so! But yes a good night, we got to meet our new housemates a bit early and try out a new bar! Loads of fun! We even managed to out number the English couples for once, prompting this Irish people's photo!! Ha! AS you can see from myself and Conor's photo we were well oiled!

Also this month at home my friend Jean just had a baby girl called Penny! She is a beauty and weighed in at 7 '12! A fair size to be fair!!! Especially if you see how itty bitty her mammy is!! I would love to be at home to give her a squeeze but it will have to wait until I am home. For the meantime I sent Jean some flowers to say congrats! I have to say since I have been here I have really enjoyed sending presents and cards home to family and friends, Mary's Florists must love hearing from me at this stage! And I am loving using Moonpig to make the cards! They have some funny ones and some very sweet ones too! Here's one I sent my friend Kelly along with the flowers I sent Jean!

                              

 

So yes that has been my month, well little bits of it! I honestly can't think of what else I did! That is bad, I will have to make June a much more interesting month!!! So that's all for now, I think I may head to bed for myself, work in the morning!!!


Amy :)

Work!

So I haven't written in ages due to the fact that I'm working now! Such a bad excuse I know! So I decided that I would write a post about work and how it is going!!! I love it so far! The girl's I'm working with are all really nice and go for drinks at the weekend together which is pretty cool! I've only gone on one night so far on my first week and it was really good fun! We went straight out after work and headed to the Bridge which is so cool! It has a couple of floors all decorated in a cool way. There's a little alleyway down the middle of the ground floor that looks like there is loads of different cafes along it! It reminded me of Paris! Ha! Next we headed to The Precinct which was pretty cool too. There was a band playing there and a pretty cool smoking area. It was a cool way to get to know everyone. Going from the bridge to precinct we got a taxi, in which the ozzy girls sang along to every song on the radio and changed the channels on the driver if they didn't like the music. It was very funny! I had to head home around twelve because I had work in the morning but the other two Irish girls carried on down to St.Kilda  for a few more drinks. 

I'm undecided as to how I feel about one of my bosses, he does not cope well with stress and gets stressed very easily. Once he's stressed he gets a bit rude and got a bit like that with me my first time working with him which wasn't the best first impression! But we shall see! I won't write him off just yet! One of our other bosses came in last Monday telling us there was a camera crew on it's way to interview him! I did my best to tidy everywhere out so shot but when Claire went to the bank they cornered my and got me to pretend to talk to him about some stock! Cringe! It was a prime example of bad tv! So yes I'll be signing autographs out here yet and looking for my name of one of these! Ha!!

Work itself is going well, kind of know how to do everything now and know what I'm at but sometimes I find that people struggle to understand my accent, which is embarrassing! Some people are lovely about it once I repeat myself but sometimes I've found that once people realise that I am Irish they can turn a little rude, but not many people thankfully! Most people ask where I'm from and how long I'm here for and how I'm enjoying it which is nice! Being on Chapel St, we get a lot of people coming from Perth and Sydney and other places just for shopping too so it's nice to hear about where they are from too and being able to recommend stuff for them to do in Melbourne is a nice twist! :D

So for work I have to wear the clothes from the store, either their own stock or the Mink Pink stuff! It is a nice change from the plain black uniform I used to wear, only thing is is that I am so going to end up spending a fortune if I'm not careful, even with our discount! So far I've been trying to buy stuff that I can mix and match or wear outside of work. So  these are the things I have bought so far! I love the pink shirt and my god those pants are the most comfortable things ever! They are a little stretchy but skinny fit so they still look good! ♡

The weather is starting to get bad here in Melbourne now ☁ so I said a few nice thick jumpers were in order so this green one is perfect! I also got the wine dress so that I can wear it with black tights! Snug! I figured when summer comes around again the skirt will be really handy too!

So yes, now all I need to do is invest in a warm jacket and a pair of boots and I'll be sorted for winter! A sentence I did not think I would be saying out here, but hows ever!

I do want to note that I do still have a life outside of work however! I am still technically on holidays you know! Ha! Been having a great time with our housemates this weekend! We had a board games night last night with a few drinks. It was way more fun than that sentence conveys! We played Monkey Barrel which was fun, considering how excited Jamie got by it! Uno for a little bit, which I lost, and then Scattergories, which was going to make or break friendships! Ha! As usual Scattergories was great fun and full of nonsense answers, so we adopted a Caeser way of voting on an answer! 

It is my brothers birthday today!! I sent him a card from Moonpig which I had great fun making and tried to send him a present of some clothes but unfortunately the company supposed to deliver the package messed up the order so it was never sent and has since been sent back to River Island, which I didn't find out until two days ago! It was a little frustrating that they didn't even try to contact me  about the problem, even though they had my number and email address. So I have decided that I'm not ordering from them again. Was so upset thinking he wouldn't be getting a present from me! Thankfully my Mam went and picked out some stuff for him in town for me but its not the same! :( That is part of the joys of being away I suppose!

I have started a new book, having finally finished The Murder Room. It wasn't fantastic so I think that is what had me taking ages to read it! So I'm now on to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, courtesy of Jamie which is meant to be very good! I have also found a book in our apartment by the author who wrote the Kite Runner, one of my favourite books, so I have something to read straight after so I'm hoping that will motivate me! Ha! I'm also doing a challenge on Instagram called #photoadaymay from fatmumslim's blog, which is fun so I may post some/all the photos from that at the end of the month!

Amy ツ

Just thinking..

Since I've got here and started my job I have found that I get asked a lot what Ireland is like and what I miss from home and I have found myself giving answers even I wasn't really expecting! So today I'm going to do a post on what I miss from home and, for the sake of balance, what I love about Australia (so far!)
What I miss, barring the obvious of my family and friends because that really goes without saying!!

1. My dogs. At home they annoy me at the best of times. They walk in front of my car, eat my clothes if I'm not paying them enough attention, run into the house and never listen. And I honestly want nothing more than a big cuddle with them or to throw a ball in the garden with them (a ball they will not bring back I might add!) This is so true of me that I have honestly been dying to cuddle anything that can bark and happens to walk past me!

2. My car! My beautiful car! I miss how nice it was to drive and how great it was. Having to rely on trams is driving me crazy! I miss the independence of having it! I know Conor's car is there for long spins which is great obviously, but Mon-Fri it is unseen by me! Ha! Here's a pick of my lovely old car after my friends decorated it simply because I left it outside of their house! Sound!
3. Irish goodies and food. Like twister ice lollies, fanta (it tastes different over here!), Burger King, Fox's biscuits, Lyons's tea, salt and vinegar Hunky Dory's, red lemonade, goldslagger (I've yet to find a pub that has it!), 
For all my giving out about missing Irish things, we actually ordered stuff from Taste Ireland's website this week so lots of Irish stuff is on it's way to us as I type! I can not wait to have some Lyons' tea with a proper Irish fry up! :D 

4. Penney's. To put it simply, there isn't really an equivalent over here! There is K-Mart and Target but they don't get stock half as often so it's the same stuff all the time and it's actually not as good as Primark stuff, or half as nice! Even shoes over here can be very expensive. No such thing as 7 euro sandals over here ladies so stock up before you come! Ha!



For all these things that I miss I of course have things that I love about Australia!
1. The lifestyle. At home the weekend is when you do stuff like go for dinner or go for a drink after work. Over here its any night of the week. It doesn't have the whole living for the weekend and live to work mentality that we have at home. Australia's work to live and enjoy themselves in between and it is the right idea! I love it!!
As well as that there is more to do over here and we find ourselves saying 'oh such and such is on, will we go?' whereas at home we would have just not bothered due to money or laziness. I know myself that when we go home now I will be much more likely to just say ok lets do it when something comes up, or at least I hope I will!

2. The beaches and the weather. Obviously I was aware coming over here that they would be amazing but I just have to mention them because well, they're amazing! Did I say that already?? Everywhere here is so well maintained and rubbish free, it's a massive change from Tramore beach at home!!
3. Living with Conor. It sounds very gay doesn't it! If my friends read that they will bust themselves laughing but I have to say I really am enjoying it. For all his snoring and messiness we have had great fun so far and have been getting on really well and have just settled into it so easily. I know that it is not something we would have done at home, especially considering our money situation at the best of times and the fact that we both liked living with our families.
4. Meeting new people. I know you technically do it on a daily basis but I mean at home you have your friends and you tend not to go outside of your group massively but over here it is like starting over again which is pretty cool, whilst being a touch daunting at the same time! Obviously I'm not saying you forget your friends from at home, no way but it's nice to make new friendships with people from a few different places!


So obviously I know the benefits of being in Australia right now seriously outweigh a few home comforts and my pups but I was just thinking about it so decided to blog it down, sure why not! I know myself that I want to live in Ireland and be around my family and friends when I'm older, something I actually wouldn't have said when we were leaving in Feb but at the moment I am most definitely going to enjoy my good dose of change and see what else Australia can bring me!
I'm really enjoying the job I started and the girls I work with are lovely too which is always nice. Life is good!!


Amy :)

Happy Days!

Oh what a good week it has been!! I have just been offered a job!!! I did three trial days for them on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday! So yes it is in between stores in Prahan and Richmond and is a pretty quirky place so we shall see how it goes!! Excited!! :)

As well this week Conor went for a job in a joinery shop and got it so he is pretty happy as it is something he hasn't done before and it is in a set place with better hours and better money! As the title says, Happy Days!!

On Thursday night, just to make my week even better we went and saw James Vincent McMorrow in The Toff in Town, which is a pretty cool venue. It is small so we were right in front of him!

He is actually a pretty funny man, once he got over his initial awkwardness!! Ha! He told us about how he had almost got on the wrong flight and ended up at Ayers Rock! He asked if there were any Irish people in the room after talking about how weird it was to see people from home this far away and once the screams drowned out just very quickly said, your mothers all say hello! He also stopped mid song as he decided that his guitar wasn't tuned right and 'it would have annoyed him the entire time!' Got to love the Irish honesty!!

On Sunday myself and Conor went and got breakfast in La Roche! Again it was amazing but this time I tried the fruity french breakfast! Delish!! Then again give me anything with strawberries and I am content!!

Afterwards Conor headed to play his first hurling match in Gaelic park in Keysborough and I followed him out afterwards! Actually got there without going wrong once! Pretty proud of myself getting used to driving over here, still a little nervous though! The match was actually pretty good and Conor's team, Gary Eoin won! He managed to score a point after starting the match but had to come off with a dead leg, which he is still hobbling around with!


We headed to Greasy Joe's once we got home for some grub! Not the most appealing of names but the food was very good!! I had a lovely burger, which I'm not normally a fan of but it was pretty fab!!

Overall, a great week! And here's to many more weeks in Melbourne like it! So here's a video of him that we took as he stepped away from the mic and played 'If I had a Boat' as only he could do!!
Enjoy!


Amy :)

Easter Weekend

Had a rather busy weekend this weekend for Easter. As Conor had four days off we said we would make the most of it and keep ourselves busy! Aswell as that it one of our roommates birthdays so he has christened it his 'Easter weekend birthday bonanza'!

Friday it was a lovely day so we headed to the beach with the roommates and went and got some lunch in Branch afterwards! The food is great and you can not argue with a $5 pizza on offer on Fridays! They have some great deals on a daily basis! :)
Lunch was nice, however we had a bit of a scare when as we were sitting chatting we heard a car screech around from Barkly and hit into a cafe! I only heard the bang of the car hitting the wall and the screams from people who were sitting and standing near-by though. Fortunately no one was seriously injured but one person did have to be taken to hospital, but the woman very narrowly missed the people eating outside of the cafe and it was an extremely busy day. I hate seeing stuff like that, not that anyone does like it, but it makes me extremely uncomfortable.

But yes once we finished our lunch we headed back to the apartment to get stuff ready for our BBQ later. (Yes, I know on Good Friday! Don't tell my grandmother!) So because it was Alex's birthday his friends all came around we had some food, some drinks and played a beer pong tournament! I can officially say that I suck at beer pong, and can reconfirm that I do not like beer, of any variety! Bleugh! Conor is also pretty bad at it so ended up pretty merry with himself by the end of his turn!! It was lovely to meet some more people who live in Melbourne, although we were most definitely a minority with eight English and only two Americas, two Australians and us the only Irish!!

So Saturday morning we headed off to Phillip Island for the day. (I love having a car!) We booked our tickets on-line for the three places as it was cheaper that way! So first we headed to Churchill Island, which is pretty much a big farm on its own island! It's very pretty and there's loads of animals there (obviously) including these super cute chicks, to keep in theme! The old house built by the man who owned the island was there and had been refurbished to look as it would have done originally. It was cool to see that. They had a lot of children's activities on  for the weekend that was in it, including Punch and Judy, which Conor watched a lot of, and they had a table where children could built their own wooden cars and things! It was very cute and everything was like the kinds of things that I did when I was younger which was nice! With the wooden toys there was a man working on a laid, to say Conor was mesmerized is an understatement! They had lots of things to see here like watching dogs round up sheep, working horses, which were beautiful, an animal nursery, where  we found the chick, a calf and some guinea pigs! they also had old cars and caravans which were pretty cool!!


Next stop, Koala reserve!! You get to walk in around the area where they are up on boardwalks or else on a nature trail. One cheeky little chappy decided to put on a bit of a show for everyone and came down around to the railings for a look see!
They look so cute and cuddly but my oh my those nails!! 

Out for a stroll

As we walked around the nature walk we saw kangaroos and some birds that I do not know the name of too. And of course, lots more koala's! I found out as well that they sleep for 20 hours a day, simply because their diet is so low in energy! Craziness!


We headed to the Nobbies centre next, which is free to do I may add! It's an beautiful part of the island which is where the seals gather, unfortunately there were none about when we were there however!! But the view was so worth the drive over! We also went some kind of back road along the coast which was amazing to see! And it was where we saw this little guy who struck a pose for us!

View from Nobbies centre

By this time we were starving so we headed back into Cowes to get some grub but there wasn't very many places to go that we could see so we grabbed a quick pizza and headed back to the Phillip Island Grand Prix Track, which I know my Dad would have loved as it is where the Moto GP is held in Australia! We went into the History of Motor Sport Museum for the track which was cool, we got to see some seriously old leathers and a Mercedes worth $1.4 million!! I was afraid to breathe near it!! From there we also got to go out to a view point and see the actual track which was cool!

$1.4 million car!

Next we headed to the penguin parade, our main attraction for the day, which we had to join a massive queue to get too! Was so glad we had booked our tickets as it had actually sold out for the night! We weren't able to upgrade to a better viewing point but to be honest I think we had the best seats in the house. We ended up sitting right down on the beach and could see them all coming out of the water and wandling their way up the beach as if they were fighting against a big wind! They are so cute and soo little. I think the guide said that the biggest they get is one foot! One foot! Adorable! You're not allowed to take photos of them as the flash from the cameras can damaged their sight so if you want to see what I mean you'll just have to go and see for yourself! After we had seen a few come up the beach we walked up around the boardwalk where you could be a foot or two away from them as they headed to their burrows! Two little guys waddled the whole way up to the visitors centre pretty much beside us!! The penguins come in just after sunset so if you are going bring hoodies or blankets, it gets cold but it would definitely recommend it!!! Easily one of my favourite things that we've done so far! :)

Sunday we had a decidedly chilled out day, only venturing out to get some lunch in a place my cousin recommended called Iddy Biddy's! True to form with everywhere she recommends it looked like an old fashion kitchen!! The food was lovely howsever and the place is very cool looking! They even had Disney and fairytale stories books as there menu's! Loved that!!

Considering it was Easter Sunday, I didn't get an Easter Egg from Conor, we kind of forgot about it being honest but my lovely Mammy sent me over some goodies including dairy milk bars and mini eggs cakes! Yum! So we tucked into some of those Sunday nigt as we Skyped home!! Then we watched a movie called the Devils double which was actually pretty good! A little horrific but good!

Monday we decided we were going to go and watch an AFL game but the weather was absolutely miserable! It was raining on and off and so cold that we said we'd rather watch it in a pub and get some grub! So Joyce and Aaron joined us in Federation Square and we watched some of it, in between chatting!! We will definitely have to catch a game properly the next time, once we've invested in some winter clothing! Ha!!

So that was our weekend, hope everyone had a nice, and chocolate filled weekend!! 

Amy :)