Better with the lights off

I am like addicted to this song! Listening to it over and over again! >_< Also quite into the French version of Simple Plan's new song "Jet Lag" (that's not released in NZ yet :[) featuring Marie (Mai). There's also the English version featuring Natasha Bedingfield

  

I love both of the songs at the moment... in particularly the first one.

I'm not actually sure what else I was going to update about. Oh yes, another tv show I discovered while browsing the selection. Switched at Birth. I'm not exactly  sure why I keep watching it. I find Bay to be really annoying and her nasally voice annoys me. She reminds me of somebody else who has a similar voice and I think might even look similar to her, but I have temporarily forgotten the name! I really like Daphne though. I don't know (probably) if it's because of how she was brought up but, it kind of seemingly always  happens in these kind of situations. In that, the poor girl who was brought up in a not-so-wealthy environment is always nicer and more understanding and caring and well, just all-round nice pretty much! (I'm also sure there's a similar story like this out there in terms of another tv show I've seen before) Obviously, she's more easily relatable and Bay (although a very unique and nice name...) is just so irritating and you just feel like throwing things at the tv/her! Bay's mum is also quite annoying at times... actually, most of them probably at one time or another I don't like how they do things. But, I just can't stop watching!

Ooooh, and onto more TV talk! The past weekend I pretty much spent the whole weekend at my friend, P's house and... we ended up watching the whole season (of 6 episodes) of The Walking Dead. AMAZING stuff! I can't wait for the second season... also can't wait for the third season of Glee! Want to see how things pan out! I really recommend The Walking Dead... Switched at Birth.... not so much, if you've got some spare time, sure but... I think it's kind of been done before, but I think I am just interested to see how things develop on that show. It's not bad.... but I don't know if it's terribly good, either. I guess maybe should just watch and judge for yourself... there's also a whle list of other new TV shows that I want to watch that seem so so so good. I haven't actually dedicated that much time to TV in so long, always been out but now I... find myself at home and on the net (and yet I sometimes find it so difficult to set aside time to update this blog....)

Anyways, think that's enough for this week~ hope you enjoy the rest of your week =)

I'm the baddest baby in the atmosphere

I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog... I swear I should just keep a constant URL and just change the name whenever so the location remains constant.

But anyways! Been too long. I don't even know what I did during that time since my last update! I do know that i bought a lot of things like a ring which is kind of replacement of my old bow one which I lost.... I don't know where it went, sigh :(

I also think, because I had a dip in income for a week, this month was the lowest amount of money I spent...

Oh, I do know one constant thing in my life the past month: GLEE! Omg, I love that show! I don't know why I didn't start watching it earlier! It's amazing and so addictive! My favourite characters? Definitely Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jnr is SO HOT! o_o) and Brittany. And maybe Santana, too. Quinn (Dianna Agron) is really pretty. I love the way she dresses, or the costume department dresses her. I like Santana's wardrobe too! But definitely Quinn's. This should be going in my fashion blog.

I think that might be all for today. Under the cut is last month's spending summary. Tomorrow, or the next entry will be dedicated to the things I bought! :)

Yummm

A couple of nights ago, Saturday I believe, BF and I went out to dinner at Tusk Thai Restaurant on Dominion Road with a voucher I had bought. It was amazing and totally worth the $39 I paid for the four-course meal! I ordered a type of chicken soup and Yellow Curry while BF ordered the hot and spicy soup and some main fish dish that I forgot the name of. Forgot to take a pic of the menu and by the time I remembered, it was too late. Oh well. BF enjoyed it and though it was nice. I thought the same. Photos to follow...

Starters: spring rolls, chicken and chicken, I think again with peanut sauce (loved it all!!)

The soups: my chicken one (left) and BF's hot and spicy.

Mains: (from top) Pad thai noodles, fish main and vegetables

Yellow curry

Dessert: Deep fried bananas with a real nice rapsberry-swirled icecream and apples!

And, other random things... painted my nails again but only had it on for less than 24 hours due to having to remove it for work :(  It took me forever to test out nail polishes and find the right one... for some reason, I wasn't "feeling" or liking almost all of them, till this one. It's Katy Perry's OPI collections - The One That Got Away with Teenage Dream on top. I want to get the Katy Perry collection now or those ones....

So, one thing that I mastered with photography is the "ghostly" people/making people disappear trick. I was sitting at the traffic lights on Queen Street when I decided to pull my camera out and the photography lesson homework that I have been on since.... a very long time and mastered that... I now know how to do this! Evidence below. I'm sure there's a name to this technique but yes, I need to get moving with my photography course.. only got about another 8-9 months to get all 13 lessons completed! My course is with ProudPhotography, btw.. I think it has the same course content as The Photography Institute and there was a deal making it significantly cheaper than TPI.. it was about $90. Signed up about a year and a half ago.

 

 Mastered, I think. :)

Oh yes, and lastly HIGH TEA AT STAMFORD WITH Pamela tomorrow! (or today...) Can't wait! Definitely will take photos! ^^

there ain't no reason why you and me should be alone tonight

I admit I have been incredibly lazy.... quite a lot of stuff has happened since last time I updated... not getting jobs... working too much/taking on too much >_< and just general social-ness. And, just the sheer overwhelmingness of sorting through the photos and "screening" them and deciding which ones I want to upload here.. not sure if I do want to upload group pics or pics with my friends in them soo yeah, that doesn't really leave much. But I have found some. Most of them are up on Facebook if you're friends with me there. It was quite an amazing trip even though I've already been there... I guess I didn't really do much the last time that I was there... cos of being poor. :\ Taupo pics will come sometime this week! Below is what I've been up to the past few weeks...

Oh yes! I have been watching Glee! OMG! I didn't know what I've been missing! My favourite song so far that I have been listening to for quite a few times a day is this (It's My Life/Confessions mashup by the guys -- haha love the video, they're like so hyped up and happy,  love it! <3) and this (Halo/Walking on Sunshine mashup by the guys... they all look soo sunny, I love their outfits! Esp the headbands haha), the second one's not the best quality but it's alright. I need to find a discussion forum on Glee! Quite a few things I wanna discuss! >_<

Anyways, the past week or two (or three?) in photos....

Happy June!

As I have mentioned before somewhere/time in my blog, I love new months. It's always a good opportunity to start anew cos it's not like you can always get a new year so often.. But yes. I think I have been neglecting those financial posts and goals. Well, I think it's time to start anew! I have spent so much just because I have gotten a lot of money... well, hopefully not this month. I am expecting about a grand from tax returns and tomorrow a nice big pay unlike my normal ones because I worked out of town and got petrol and accommodation pay too.

Though, after saying that, I am going to be going away in a couple of days (3 to be exact). It's going to be wonderful. I will also be the only attached friend there... that should be fun. But hopefully won't be spending too much, another friend, TS didn't really want to spend over $80. Could be done, accommodation split between us all is about $47, maybe cheaper if more people come. We'll see. Definitely keep you posted.

So. The goals:

June Goals

1. Read 2 books.
2. Watch 15(+) movies.
3. Work 15(+) hours/week.
4. Save 20%/$40 each week.
5. One "splurge"/purchase a week (if/when paid).
6. Weekly blogging (on both blogs) & (private) journaling.
7. Three meals a day/decent wake ups (to do this = food blog)

Spendings Round-up!

I find it so difficult to classify things. I'm not sure if it's the perfectionist/Virgo in me but I want the categories to be super detailed.... then I wonder does it really need to be that detailed? My current categories (that I have listed for June onwards) are:

• Dining+Bars (with friends)
• Dining BF (with boyfriend)
• Homewares
• Monthly (expenses such as mobile top up, magazine purchase and car insurance but that is filed under car costs... what do you think, should it be filed under monthly or car costs?)
• Car Costs (purchases retlated to my car such as most recently jump start cables, maintenance, WOF, registration etc)
• Clothes+Grooming (beauty, clothes and the like purchases)
• Gifts
• Savings
• Groceries (purchases from the supermarket to make dinner and other things such as snacks and such)
• Dairy buys (purchases from the dairy, usually when I require money for the bus.... or like recently water from the service station. Should this just be under a combined "food+groceries" category? Justification for this is that I want to target my spendings and know exactly where to cut back/where I am buying foods from.... hmm)
• Biscuit (purchases related to my pet guinea pig, usually just vegetables, pellets, hay, check ups etc)
• Transport (fuel purchases and bus/train tickets)
• Socializing (I contemplated having this under entertainment but in the past I have had magazine purchases and also book buys under the entertainment category... socialising is things like karaoke, pool etc. Hmm. Advice?)
• Holidays (thought I ought to have a 'holidays' category...)
• Meals Out (breakfast, lunch and dinners that are purchased/had outside of the home... or should that also go under a combined "food+groceries" category?)
• Debts (very unusual but yeah, self-explanatory)

So that is how things are categorized from now on for me and well, how I categorize.. May summary under the cut.

Spending Like It's Going Out of Fashion

Since getting paid last week. I have been spending like there's no tomorrow... >_< I think since pay day, I've bought:

• Dress from Pagani ($40)
  
• L'Oreal Paris Glam Shine 6 hour lip gloss ($28)
• Mink Feel Blanket and 2x pillows from Warehouse - cos I forgot  blanket+pillow when going down to Hamilton.. ($37.98 - $8 for pillow)  
• Car charger ($8.90 + shipping) ~ not really a big spend..
• HP Multifunction Printer ($56)
• Coat hangers, hand towels and a pair of pink flats from Warehouse($18) 

I will post up pictures hopefully sometime this week. 

Last weekend was a pretty sweet weekend with friends. I went down to Hamilton for work and three of my friends spontaneously and randomly decided to come down and visit me, pretty much lol. This was the night that I realized that there isn't much to do in Hamilton... it was a fun night. Ended up eating leftover chocolate custard in the car with bananas. It's really nice. I really do like Fairtrade bananas! I also ended up selling out of all the stock that was in the store over 2 days, that was meant to be for 3 days? It was great.

Went back up to Auckland on Saturday night since I sold out of the stock and so couldn't work the next day and saw friends again, ended up going on a random mini road trip to Matakana. There's nothing there. But we just ended up going to Orewa beach. Good random times!

Lastly, Sunday night, dinner with friends at a Chinese restaurant after work followed by Hulu Cat - pearl milk tea. Good end to the night :)

Sadly, don't have any photos.. but I think it's pretty much summed up. Ah, start of a new month soon! How the first six months went by so, incredibly fast! Where did it all go? I still haven't found a job, I'm thinking going to try harder this month onwards and actually look everyday or couple of days... wish me luck. I applied for a job at my current work, something more, a step up from what I do now, kinda.

Messy Dinners and Paydays

Payday yesterday was amazing. I got paid a grand for 17.5 hours of work! O_O I hope I have this job for a little while longer because that means I will possibly be able to get the phone I want sooner then I think, I hope :)

And then onto other things such as the dinner I had tonight and the movie I saw yesterday...

Tonight, kind of in celebration of my being paid, a lot BF and I went out to dinner at La Bocca restaurant in Parnell and dessert at The Chocolate Boutique (no photos from here unfortunately, but we had it to takeaway anyway). It was amazing! Hmmm.. okay maybe not amazing but the service from the waiter certainly was. Actually, it was quite amazing, really did enjoy the meal and the saffron risotto was good. So yeah a good night and dinner! :) That was followed by dessert at The Chocolate Boutique. It wasn't really amazing, but then I got to the bottom and it was amazing then. I really do like Chocolate Boutique! Had some really nice and yum looking chocolates but already had a few too many chocolates at home so resisted the temptation to buy any. Photos follow!

Gratin of pan fried king prawns with garlic, white wine, fresh and sun dried tomatoes on saffron risotto (source)

The end. Clean(ish) plate =)

And other photos from here and there. Speaking of photos, should really finish that photography course at Proud Photography! I think I'll save the movie review for another entry.