I am 16 going on 17

Do you guys recognise that song? The Sound of Music!! :) :) I LOVE that musical :D

This is the last day I can ever sing that song :)

I can remember the first time I watched The Sound of Music I was around 8? And I remember thinking wowwww 17 is so old I can't imagine ever being 17!!

17. A nice solid age I think, just in between the 'landmarks' of 16 and 18.

A quote from Zayn Malik of One Direction (LOL he's my favourite member): "It's weird to see how much you could fit into a year. How much stuff you can do and how different your life can become."

This time last year...hmm I can remember it exactly and I must say I can't believe how much I've changed since I turned 16. I feel that I have become so much more mature, made new friends and become closer to God.

Yay yay! 16 was such a great, irreplaceable year and I can't wait to turn 17 and see what exciting, exciting adventures this new chapter in my life will bring!

Hmm this time next year, I would have made a decision about what course to do in uni, I would be preparing to go to said uni and I would hvae put all the horrid HSC way past me :) But as for now, it still looms ahead so still gotta keep working hard! :)

Hmm I think I will put up a small list of memorable things I did when I was Sweet Sixteen for old time's sake and so when I read back on my blog I can relive these moments :)

• I had my first birthday party since I was in Year 2 or 3 :) I remember planning for it for weeks lol and then I was late to my own party haha and I thought it wasn't going to go to plan at all but it turned out more memorable and better than I expected! Haha yay another post about 'expecting the unexpected'
• I went to KYCK for the first time. Awesome experience, I still remember the feeling of enlightenment on the last night when we were all singing/screaming out the words to 'One Way Jesus' and we had our arms around strangers and we were all doing that hilarious can-can dance for some reason (remember BT? LOL) and I almost cried :') And being savages and prank-calling HZ hahaha singing 'Friday' by Rebecca Black but AM accidentally sang it to the tune of 'Baby' LOL
• I had my first summer where I spent the entirety of it in Australia and not a couple of weeks overseas. Weather was rather wet, but it was an awesome summer :)
• I attended my first high school formal! The semi-formal was so much fun even though it rained a little
• I got another dog, Biscuit :) I thought after Lucky I would never have the capacity to love another dog ever again but since I've gotten Biscuit I realised we have enough space in our hearts for lots of things
• I went 'adventure-landing' where I would visit new places I'd never been before like Glebe etc. I also temporarily got into thrifting haha but I think that urge has stopped now
• I made a Pen Pal :) her name is also Michelle and she lives in Canada
• I created this blog

That's about all I can think of right now, but I missed out on the little daybyday moments too like making new friends, spending time with old friends, enjoying school, organising events etc :D

Woo excited for tomorrow! I wonder if I'll wake up feeling older haha

Love: Michelle

P.S. My aunt came over on the weekend and gave me my first birthday pressie!

She got it from Swarovski, one of my favourite shops haha :)

A crystal piggy! So cute! :) I will put it on my desk :D

Also, currently reading this:

Thank you GZ for lending it to me! Hoping it'll help me with Ext English :) It's pretty hard to read...lots of the words are slang so sometimes it feels like the book is in a different language LOL but I will endeavour :)

The tricky world of LOVE

It's about a week before the day-hearts, pink, chocolates, roses yes it's VALENTINES DAY

That holiday. I am a self-confessed hopeless romantic, Valentines-day-and-the-colour-pink enthusiast, all that jazz but today I realised: I don't know the first thing about love. (In this sense I'm talking about romantic love, not love between friends and family because thankfully I am in no shortage of those :D I am a lucky gal)

I love the idea of love alright; I love watching chick flicks like Bridal Wars and crying at the end, whenever a couple in my grade are holding hands or smile each at each other I always feel so happy and smiley and say awwwwwwwww :'), I believe in things like FATE and THE ONE etc

But my experience of love? NADA. ZILCH. In fact I'm so lacking any type of 'experience' with  guys that I have been referred to as 'prude', 'old lady', 'party-pooper', 'boring' etc by several different people at different points in my life. But the thing is, I don't actively seek to be a so-called 'prude' and it's not like I look down on other couples; I LOVE them and frequently think to myself how cute they are.
Other people seem to have the whole relationships thing down pat, and that's very admirable, but I know I am admittedly oblivious, naive, a complete over-thinker and over-worrier and question things like 'Is this how a normal relationship goes? What's supposed to happen?' Are there rules to dating, what constitutes a proper date, are you supposed to sit with them in classes after getting together, when are you supposed to introduce them to your parents, how often do these 'dates' happen etc etc and the questions continue. They just all baffle me! I don't understand this world of LOVE and how you're supposed to act and feel and things like that; it's a whole other world and currently I don't know if I'll ever even be ready in fact for these new experiences!

And gals like me, awkward 'prude' gals, we're criticised. We're not the norm in society, we're weird and abnormal and our advice isn't considered valuable or helpful to any friends with love problems because "You guys don't understand; you've never had a boyfriend!" True, I have not, true I might not be able to relate as much to your issues but I think our perspective is valuable too, although people have told me before that my views on life can't be trusted because I know so little and are so naive. Frankly, that hurts a little. I mean on urbandictionary, usages of the word 'prude' include:
God, she wouldn't kiss me. She's such a prude.
She won't have sex with me even though we've been going out for a month. What a prude!
and it's often used to mock or as an insult.

But, I think, it's okay to be awkward and inexperienced in love. It's okay to be a 'prude'.

In time, God will send the One to me if that is in my life plan, if not then it was never supposed to happen anyway and my life will be just as fulfilling through other activities such as cat collecting, writing letters and sending through the post, cooking all that sort of stuff :)

If that means I will go through life without having kissed a single person, then so be it. There are so many 'things' society says needs to be done or assumes is done by a certain age; for example stereotypically it is thought teenagers will all have tried alcohol (still never) and have those 'teen parties', and movies like 'The 40-year-old Virgin' (I haven't seen it but I'm assuming the title tells a lot about what type of person the movie is based around) showcase exactly how this behaviour is characterised as 'odd' and 'atypical' by society. Why all the pressures? Let things happen as they happen, never rush to do something just to do something. I'm not in a hurry to go and kiss just to 'lose it', and that part in the movie 'New Years Eve' where random people kiss in the streets just because the countdown from 10-1 ended and it's a new year is just not acceptable! It makes it look like it's the norm and it's completely fine to go around kissing whoever (which is why I feel SO uncomfortable when I hear about girls kissing other girls just for the fun of it; WHYYY) when it's completely NOT! It's something special, saved until you are well, WELL more than half-a-year into a relationship and NEVER something for the first date. I don't judge others who may do this, just personally I would never do the whole kissing people randomly thing.

So on behalf of all of us 'awkward in love' girls, I don't care that I am a 'prude' and am inexperienced and naive. Personally, if I can't see yourself myself marrying that person, I would not date them.

So anyway-I know this post was rather rambly but a main point I want to make-(esp to the people telling me to date right now) don't make life (either your own or others') full of drama! Listen to some classical music, play an instrument, read a nice book and love your friends and I think we're all set :3

Love: Michelle

Anyway, so now I know for sure who my valentine is for next week; my darling, beautiful BISCUIT.

Biscuit as a puppy <3 For Feb 14th I shall give her a pig ear, her favourite :D

P.S. In part, this post was a little inspired by http://rookiemag.com/2011/10/never-been-kissed/

Also, I realise this post may cause people to call me a prude, but it's okay, I have accepted that :) 

On another note, The Secret World of Arrietty, a Studio Ghibli film, is coming to cinemas!! So excited!!

First day of school

Hey guys! It was the, for some people, dreaded first day of school today. I've actually been looking forward to this day for ages, at the risk of sounding like a nerd haha but oh school, how I have missed your routine and seeing friends everyday and eating breakfast at the normal time and getting to have study periods this year instead of sport! Woo!

Shoutout to KT, who has been in HK for the past SIX WEEKS! So glad you're back :)

Today the lovely BT baked us cookies and wrote us all letters for the first day of school :) thanks B!

I think the key to enjoying school is to change your mind frame about your subjects and even tutoring. I used to always say I hated math back in junior school and that was bad because the more I said it the more I dreaded it, but over the past year I have been learning to appreciate and even like Maths, which means I now look forward to all my subjects! Well almost all the time. Still working on it though, but I try to limit saying things like 'I have chem next :(' or 'double Maths on monday mornings suck'. It really does help your attitude :)

Last night my mum gave me a red pocket to put in my skirt pocket at school for luck :) to keep the luck I now pledge to not open it until year 12 is officially over :)

I've also developed a little sprain in my right hand wrist because I've spent the whole last weekend non stop sewing for RH's and my muck up outfits. Totally worth it though :) so proud of them hehe. After muck up on Friday I will have a DIY tutorial on them showing you guys how I made them :D

My sister, after spendning the last 3 days at O Week, some uni camp, has now left for a week at Lake Somewhere with 6 of her pals. I hope she stays safe! Also my Dad is currently in Perth for the week for a business trip so it's just my mum and I this week :D

Love: Michelle

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROGER!!

Well technically he turns 17 TOMORROW on the 6th but today was his birthday party! Thanks for the party, Rodge, it was a blast :) Reminds me of 'Grease"...Summer lovin' had me a blastttt... :D If you guys recognise that song YAY

We went to George Thornton Reserve to have a barbeque at first and the weather was not too hot today actually, quite cool yet humid at the same time (how possible? well it's Australia LOL cos right now as I'm blogging this it's thunderstorming and raining outside which is quite a change from the heat wave barely a day ago).

This is a bit of the Reserve. GZ and I took Roger's dog Chloe for a bit of a walk. She is so cute but quite fat HAHA...

Chloeeeee :D See how her tongue is all out? She KEPT panting and wouldn't stop so we thought maybe she was thirsty...

So we brought her to the tap and she drank lots but she KEPT PANTING non-stop for the whole day...She was probably tired and it was hot.

The reserve was fun! Some more pictures....

HAHA I didn't even realise when I took this that CG was doing such a funny pose :D He wasn't even aware I was snapping pics. Wow he must just naturally talk and act like that....well he is a Drama student :P The more I look the funnier it gets...It's like he's giving some fashion advice or something HAHA

A photo of all the junk food we brought to the picnic...we hardly finished much of it actually :L

Casual B-ball at the Reserve

3 loaves of bread waiting for the meat to arrive....Rodge bought these frozen hamburger patties and when we opened the pack they looked very orange and unappealing but after they had been barbeque-d they turned brown and actually tasted really nice :) Thanks to JJ for her EXPERT barbeque-ing skills :) We realised that nobody brought any sauce and sauce really makes a burger taste so much better so MP and GZ went to go buy sauce and came back with a huge bottle of juice and that was literally gone in less than 10 minutes HAHA.

Ooh before I forget: Shout-out to AS! Your salmon lace shorts today were really cute!! (I know I told you twice today already ahah but they really were :D)

The Reserve was filled with dog walks, barbeque-ing and fun talks (A standout moment was with KF: my fellow can't'-ride-a-bike-and-so-compensated-for-that-lack-of-skill-by-skateboarding-and-riding-a-scooter buddy :D)

 Seriously I had a Digimon Skateboard that was 100 times cooler than any bike. And hot pink roller blades and an awesome slver sleek scooter. Pssh. (I'm just saying this so I don't feel inadequate about not being able to ride a bike LOL)

Afterwards we all trekked to Rodge's house (I walked Chloe back) and we decided to swim and those that didn't want to or didn't bring swimmers played pool. HAHA so everyone decided to pool :P Okay I didn't make that pun up it was GZ but I stole it for this blog...

Roger's pool is AMAZING! There is a cave up the top that you climb a few rocks to get to and that thing on the side is a water slide :) There are little statue animals that look really real like a turtle and an alligator and a bird so it kinda looks like a cool display at the zoo for seals or something :))

Lots of fun: Water fights with self-confessed Pool Mafia JM, CG picking up everyone and throwing them into the pool, playing 'Akifball', so-called 'planking' onto the water which doesn't really work because the water holds you up..

After I had gotten out of the pool and changed etc I was feeling really hungry and I spotted a a piece of foil with all these rectangular pastries on it. At first I thought they were curry puffs or spring rolls or something then I but into one and I was like...Is there chocolate inside this? Turns out JC had taken a box of these:

and had covered each of the chocolates with puff pustry and baked them. It was so delicious!! It's like the healthy version of deep-frying chocolate (except baking them in pastry is still not exactly healthy...)
I was onto my 4th favourite-pastry-hybrid when i spied a half-eaten one on the corner of the foil and predictably, inside was a Turkish Delight. Seriously NO ONE likes/eats the turkish delights! Well correct me if I'm wrong about this theory, readers :D

Anyway I went home soon after that but THANKS FOR THE PARTY RC it was awesome I hope you had a fun day celebrating your special day too :D Except that your birthday is on the 6th but still I remember my 16th birthday party I held it like 2 weeks after my actual birthday because of clashing with exams/assessments so yeah it's perfectly cool to celebrate your bday on another day than your bday (ensuring it's not TOO far from your actual bday....probably 6 months later is pushing it a bit LOL)

I'm glad I ended up going, you've been one of my best friends since year 7 (going to your house today I remembered your party in Year 7 SERIOUSLY THAT WAS AWESOME) and I'm glad I didn't flake on you after all. You see, this is the story of the drama of going/not going to Rodge's:
-At first, I was going to carpool with my friend JP who lives just one street down from me (SUPER handy we can have our chem study seshs easily even once at 9 she came over and we were just both in sweats LOL then we had a quick revision for the prac test :D One time at 9pm she even came around with red velvet cupcakes randomly :D)
-Then JP couldn't go anymore so my mum said if I didn't really want to go (because BT and RH ma gurl frans weren't going I didn't feel up to it) I shouldn't go so I thought ok I won't go
-Yesterday I saw RH and BT (and HH too) at towers and after shopping for Rodge's present we decided we would go after all
-This morning I got a text from BT saying she wasn't up to it due to tiredness and I decided not to go cos i'm not that great with bus catching (also sometimes I get into anti-social apathetic-ish moods where I just want to read Horrible Histories at home and eat Mi Goreng)
-Then I got a text from GZ saying if I wanted he could catch the bus with me then I realised I CAN'T BE A FLAKE! That goes against my belief that you have to live up to the decisions you make and put effort into friendships, and whether you're up for it or not, sometimes it's not only for yourself but you have to think of other people. I couldn't let Rodge down! So I turned my attitude around and heypresto my dad said he could give me a lift to the party. WOO!

Love: Michelle

P.S. Looking forward to having a girlie day out with my older sis tomorrow :) We may be watching 'The Adventures of Tin-Tin' in the cinema then eating ice-cream from Mother Crepe. Hoping you guys all have exciting plans tomorrow too!

On the mention of my sister, a funny convo we had yesterday: [To understand fully 'Home' is the name of a club in Sydney]

Me: So I hear you're going out tomorrow night.
Rose: Yeah, I'm going clubbing.
Me: Oh where are you going?
Rose: 'Home'
Me: No where are you going clubbing?
Rose: I'm going 'Home'
Me: But I thought you said you were going out!
Rose: Yeah I am
Me: I was asking you where you're going exactly
Rose: I already said I'm going 'Home'!

Stupid conversation continues for 5 minutes until
Me: WHERE ARE YOU GOING??
Rose: A CLUB CALLED 'HOME' !

ROFL

Love: Michelle

2012

Welcome to 2012!!

I think I already learnt an important lesson in this first day of the new year (and it's only 1:34am haha): Expect the unexpected (In the wise words of B.Tan)

You see, yesterday night if you had asked me what I was doing for NYE I would have told you I would be watching the movie 'New Years Eve' and then catching a train to North Sydney with my family as we had booked two hotel rooms in Harbourside to enjoy the splendour of the fireworks.

Well.

I missed that train to North Sydney and my family were forced to leave me behind.

Instead, as I forgot my house keys, I triapsed to my aunt's house in North Parramatta (GZ-further proof that she is a superhero HAHA) where I spent the next 4 hours until midnight in virtual solitude watching the TV (as my aunt, my cousin and my uncle had all fallen asleep by 8:30 on account of the fact that they had been working all day and were really tired).
At first I was pretty disappointed (especially after my sister called and was raving about the floor to ceiling windows and how they set up chairs for everybody to sit and watch the fireworks, and how they even got wristbands to walk around the Harbourside area cos apparently it was really exclusive and how one chair was left empty for me) because I was really looking forward to it BUT the time alone really gave me time to reflect on the past year and the lessons and memories I will never forget.

And hey it was still an awesome day because I
-Got to see my dear pals BT, AG, RC and GZ briefly today and got to watch an amazing movie with BT and AG as well.

[I stole this photo from CrysBea chicken HAHA cos I couldn't be bothered to take a photo of my ticket which was H-7 btw]
-Reread Malcolm in the Middle at my aunts house (which is a hilarious series btw)
-Made my first New Years Resolution: Watch the fireworks NEXT New Years Eve, Whether with family or friends, and in a hotel room or in the ground [NOT ON TV], I shall STRIVE to achieve this HAHA I have actually never once went out on New Years with friends and only once (when I was about 5) watched the fireworks in the city with my family so I have yet to experience this 'partying' on New Years everybody talks about :)
-And call this fate or MAGIC but when it was getting closer to 12 and I was all alone, I was getting a little scared I wouldn't be able to ring in the new year with anyone because my mum told me they were still in the city but at exactly 12:00, my aunt's doorbell rang and my family was outside waiting there screaming HAPPY NEW YEAR and then my uncle and my aunt woke up and celebrated too and there were many hugs and kisses which was nice :') So I didn't spent it alone afterall :D

Also this was the first New Years I have ever gotten so many calls and text messages wishing me Happy New Year and wanting to reminisce about 2011 and telling me about their night and whatnot so thank you for everybody's wishes :D

To end this post here is a quote from 'New Years Eve': Although there are things beyond our control (such as natural disasters) we can always control our personal attitudes so this year be kinder, forgive more and LOVE more because love drives the world.

Here's to hoping 2012 will bring trials (literally as well....can't be forgetting them TESTS), triumphs, transitions, trends, tempestuous times and terrific times and everything in between.

Love: Michelle

Update: Here are some photos that my parents snapped at Harbourview yesterday and I decided to slot them into this entry as it seems fitting :)

It's summer right not in Sydney and the days are long so even when my parents and my sister got to North Sydney at 8:40 ish, the sky was still so nice and light outside :)

Some fireworks in the far-off distance

Some fireworks in the not-so-far-off-distance