A Day in The Zoo

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Today Greg and I spent the day at Auckland Zoo. It was yet another hot summer day and walking around the zoo was a perfect day to spend a day outside, getting some tan and enjoying each others company.

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I haven’t been to the zoo for ages, and I don’t think that I have ever gone there without any children but it turns out that it is a great place to spend time for adults too.

It is quite fascinating to see wild animals up close. Animals that is designed to live in the wilderness. Knowing that some of them would hunt you down and have you as dinner if it wasn’t for the fence between you. To think if you saw the animal that close in nature you would probably be in life danger, but here in the zoo you can just relax.

My favourite animal to see must be the elephant. I get obsessed with elephants from time to time. Their nature and their looks is just beautiful. They help each other out, are social animals and so big and beautiful.

My second favourite must be the giraffe, simply because they are so graceful and also harmless.

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Now my days here in New Zealand is starting to run out and my departure date is quickly coming up. I only have tomorrow night and then on Monday I am leaving. I have really felt the sadness of leaving today, knowing that I only have another full day before going back to London.

After the zoo today, Greg’s sister and her husband came over for dinner and it will be the last time I will see them during this trip which made me really sad. Greg has such a lovely family that is so friendly and easy to be around and that makes it even harder to say goodbye.

Tonight Greg had some friends to see and whilst i really should be studying tonight I nearly came with him. Just because I am so aware that I have very little time now and want to make the most of it. It wasn’t until right before he was going I realised that I really do have very little time on my assignments and decided to stay in.

Hopefully I will be able to enjoy my last day tomorrow, and not be dragged down too much by thinking of that I will soon be flying home.

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I am now all ready for bed, and will therefore say goodnight and wish for another great day tomorrow – the last of the year!… ….And my last full day here in New Zealand.

Camilla

 

 

Adventure around Devonport

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Today has been one of those days that makes me feel like I am 16 again. Being out with friends, in the sun, just enjoying each others company. Nowhere to be, nothing to worry about, just hanging out and having fun.

We went to meet Greg’s best friend James in the morning and spent the whole day out in the sun.

We were originally supposed to take the ferry to one of the little islands around here, but in the morning the weather seemed a bit unstable so we dropped those plans. Instead we went to wonder around Devonport and just do what we felt like without any specific plans in mind.

It turned into the best day, probably because we just did what we felt like and didn’t have a specific schedule to follow.

We climbed up Mount Victoria, one of the old extinct volcanoes at Devonport and took in the amazing view from up there. Looking out over the city from there almost looks unreal. As if a picture on a canvas is put down there. I am not normally one to gaze at a view, but since coming here I have just been amazed with them. I don’t know if it is me changing or if it is just because the views here are so spectacular that I cant help but admire them.

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After having a great lunch, we headed to the Maritime museum that is in Devonport. I love a bit of history and seeing the exhibits from different tours of the Navy, especially during the war always feels so special to me.

The museum also has these really cool “cabins” on display where you can go and get a feel of what it is to be on one of those boats. It made me really want to join the Navy being in there, trying on the uniform hats and hearing the stories of maritime history.

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Arholm reporting for duty

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Look at my handsome captain!

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How cool is it that you can have an interactive experience with the cabins like that? I think it would have been really fun being out at sea with your ship and sharing a cabin like that. Sign me up!

We later went down to the marina and spent a few hours sitting by the water and just having fun. We all went for a swim, me with my clothes on haha! When you don’t have a bikini with you what else is there to do?

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The boys both were super brave and got out on the beam, I on the other hand needed two tries before I even dared to step out on the thing
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That’s as far as I got…

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A little afternoon yam session at James’s house, Greg and I are pretending that we know what we are doing

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Now I am curled up on the bed at Greg’s parents place. Being out in the sun all day really takes your energy away, but it is a great way to feel tired!

Have a great evening,

Camilla

Christmas in New Zealand

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Hello from the beautiful country of New Zealand!IMG_0092

At last, I am here! If you read my previous post a few weeks ago, you will know that I was scheduled to fly to New Zealand the 12th of December to spend Christmas with my boyfriend Greg and his family. Well nothing went according to plan.

The day I was meant to travel I got a really bad infection and was strongly recommended by the doctors at the hospital to not fly long distance and stay admitted there until I got better to avoid complications later.
After a lot of back and forth and a few tears I decided at the last minute (literally right before heading to the airport) to not fly because I was too scared of something happening. So as the panic hit me, I cancelled my flight and booked myself onto one about a week after.

And after a week at home, i finally got myself successfully on my flight and made it to New Zealand just in time for Christmas.

And it is absolutely stunningly beautiful here!

Right after I arrived here, Greg was scheduled to go for a long weekend away with his friends. During that time I was able to spend some time alone with his family which was great! Greg’s mum is always so welcoming to me and took me all around Auckland to see everything from the Sky Tower to beaches while Greg was away  I even got to see some places here that Greg has not even seen yet. Here are some pictures:

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Auckland City and The Sky Tower:IMG_0092IMG_0062IMG_0052IMG_0053

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Other than celebrating Christmas here we have spent time with Greg’s friends, gone for long drives and gone to explore all the little bays and beaches around where we are here in Auckland. It is amazing how much diversity and landscape can be found around one single city. I feel as if we have seen ten different places in New Zealand, yet we are in the same area surrounding the city. So many beaches, some with huge waves and dramatic landscape and others with long flat sand reaching for miles and miles with still sea. In the country side, yet a short drive away is the big city.

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One of my first thoughts as I arrived from London was just how few people is around. Even on a beautiful day the streets are never overcrowded, nor is the beaches.

I have been constantly using the word colourful everyday since I came here, and it is the only word I can use to describe the beauty around here. At times it seems that I am standing looking at a huge big canvas, as if it is too beautiful to be real.

But enough about the beauty of the land, the pictures speaks for them selves! 20171224_162303IMG_0099IMG_0093

It is a ball of emotions being here this time of year. It being Christmas and yet it being warm. Feeling blessed to be spending Christmas with Greg’s wonderful family. Spending Christmas with Greg. Being on an adventure and in nature. Being back after two years of living with Greg in London and feeling as if not a day has passed since I was last here. It being the same and yet so different. Seeing Greg so happy to be here and home, yet knowing we are going back to London again soon. Thinking of what was before and what is now.

It truly feels as though it was last week that I spent three months here with Greg, when we were newly in love and excited to move to London and in together. It feels strange that it feels like no time has passed, and yet two years has gone by and with that a lot has happened. It is a strange feeling – feeling everything is completely the same and yet so different.

 

I only have a few days left now, because already on the 1st of January I am heading back to London. Greg will stay for another two weeks – lucky bastard.

Tomorrow we are catching up with Greg’s best friend James and spending the day with him! It will be so nice!

Have a great day everyone, or night for those on this side of the world,

Camilla

Preparing for New Zealand!

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I am now sitting at home with Gilmore girls on the TV, snacks on the table and myself planted on the sofa tucked in warm blanket. Not a crazy Saturday night, but with the cold weather outside it is the only thing I want to do tonight.

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Even with thick socks, a sweater, a fleece jacket, a good blanket AND heaters on I am still cold!

It is a strange evening home for me, because tonight Greg has travelled to New Zealand where I will travel to on Tuesday to spend Christmas with him and his family.

It is less than a week until I see him and just another two days at home before I leave but yet the house feels so empty without him! I am of course used to being home alone. Greg and I don’t spend every evening together, and  often he has to travel to other UK cities for work yet knowing that he is flying to far away makes it feel extra empty. Even though I will see him in no time.
It gives me a real butterfly feeling in my stomach knowing that the next text I get from him he will be far away in Malaysia and I wont talk to him until he is landed in New Zealand. It almost feels like I am the one flying – and in some way that probably is what it is. Knowing that our flights are so close together I feel much closer to my own flight date. The next time I see Greg I will also be in New Zealand, something that I planned for so long is finally happening.

I have so many things to sort out before I go, and I am starting to feel that I am running out of time. I need to finish the laundry for my whole trip in time for it to dry before I pack it. I have to pack, find some stuff for the trip such as a backpack etc. I need to go to uni and sort out a few things this Monday and get the house clean and tidy for us to get back to. In addition to that I am starting to come down with a hefty cold and it looks like I am getting my infection back so I have to go and get some antibiotics on Monday so I am ok for the long flight. I currently get a painful back just sitting on the sofa for an hour so two rounds of 12 hours on a plane will be awful unless I sort it out!

But mostly I am so excited!

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday wither you are out and about living it up or is at home, relaxing on the sofa like me today.

Camilla

Happiness, Relationship and Christmas preparations

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December!! Woohoo (or should I say ho ho ho), Christmas is officially upon us!
Well it is 5th of December so it has been upon us for a few days but surprise surprise I am a little behind. (Story of my life, ugh) But ahead for a new years resolution – be more on time, so there is a silver lining right?

Christmas decorations at work!
Bring on that Christmas feeling

I love this time of year, not just with it being Christmas but the whole thing. The cold, dressing up with big scarfs and lighting candles and staying warm inside, after a long day out in the cold. It is such a cosy time of year.
When I was younger I hated the winter and loved the summer. Now I am starting to become a real winter person and as soon as September starts I get in a really good mood, knowing it is heading towards winter. The temperature dropping day by day, having to dress warmer and warmer and watching the leaves on the trees change colour and start falling down until they all are without leaves – portraying a beautiful winter landscape.

Life at the moment feels divided into two. In some aspects life is great, better than ever. Things I have emotionally struggled with for a long time is starting to fade from my mind, my anxiety is much better, my previous depression i have had is so to speak gone and I am sleeping better than ever. I feel that I have got such a better life quality especially as I lately have not had any insomnia or trouble getting up. I have started to get tired at 10 at night and I wake up be myself some time between 6 and 8am. Just to have been able to go to bed at the same time as Greg and fall asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow makes such a difference. I don’t sit up being lonely watching TV until the late hours, and I don’t lie in bed wallowing over little issues. Not to mention I get much more daylight and a better feeling when I get up early.

I don’t think my relationship with Greg has ever been better, and I am so in love. I feel that we are such a team and I feel that I can more than ever bring up stuff that I  need to talk about or resolve issues like a team with him. I feel more wanted in his life than I ever have and I cannot imagine my life without him. It is like we just work, and it makes me very happy.  In one week exactly, I am flying to New Zealand and we will spend Christmas together with his family and I am incredibly excited!

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In other aspects I feel that I am doing really poorly and that life is stressful and tiring.  I have been trying really hard to get in a routine of healthy eating and excising, but I keep struggling with it. Especially with the eating. In addition to that I have not been able to fully control my diabetes, making me incredibly tired. It feels like a bad wheel going, and I am using a lot of energy trying to get it on track.

With uni I feel behind already, I am currently stressing to secure a  supervisor for my dissertation, and time is ticking away because I am leaving next Tuesday so I need to have it sorted by then. I also have the worst concentration at the moment and combined with being tired from my diabetes it feels very challenging as I am reading and writing on my own for uni. I can defiantly feel that a master is much more challenging than when I did my bachelors. I feel that I struggle to meet deadlines and that what I am doing isn’t good enough. I feel behind with other projects as well, such as the blog and this vlog I am working on. As if I cant gather the focus to get it of the ground. I am taking steps to improve it though, and this week I have some doctors appointments lined up, an eating plan and I am meeting with the tutor at work to sort my stuff out (hopefully).

I guess that I life, as some things go well others will not. I am in general really grateful though, because overall I am really happy and I feel much calmer and centred than I did before.

I hope everyone is having a great December and wishing you all the very best!

Camilla xx

Back Online!

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Good morning and happy weekend!

I have been gone from the blog from a long time now, but now I have a huge desire to get back at it and join the online world again! I feel that I suddenly dropped of the radar – not only of the blog but also from social media.
However I did not drop of the face of the earth!

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A LOT has changed since my last blog post. I have finished my degree in Politics and International Relations at University of East London and I have now started my masters in Psychology at Middlesex University. And through that change not only have my field of study changed but my future career road is looking completely different than what it did before. I could not be happier though and I feel that I found a field and a road that is more suited to me, my experience and my interests.

I have yet to manage my diet completely and living healthily, HOWEVER I have quit smoking! Yaaay! I have since may been smoke free and I feel very confident that I will remain smoke free. I wish I was reporting that I am currently living this super health lifestyle that I strive to live by but food-wise I am not really quite there. I am working on it though, because I have such a wish and need to feel healthy and manage to stay away from unhealthy foods. But as one thing at the time.

During the summer Greg and I went to Greece and Prague and the rest of the summer we both worked. A lot. I think I averaged 57 hours a week at the restaurant. In other words, other than our trips I had absolutely no life.

I am at the moment still working at the restaurant but because I am a full time student only 20 hours a week during term time. So I have a life again.

And I am still living at the same place with Greg. This week we have one extra person in the house, because my mum is visiting from  Norway. She came over for my graduation and stayed for a week. It is great not only because I get to see her, but also because she likes to cook for us, clean for us and help with everything around the house. Basically we have had a vacation this week – from all duties in the home.

That was a little update from me to say, hi, hello I am back and update you on my life!

Have an amazing day and weekend!

– Camilla

 

 

 

Things to do in London: Greenwich Park – The Middle of Time

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DSCF3769Good evening guys!

I hope you have all had a great long Easter weekend!

I had work the first three days of holidays but yesterday I finally had my first day off. Greg and I hadn’t got to spend a lot of time together for a while as we have had such different schedules, so yesterday we decided to spend some quality time together.

We went to Greenwich Park, which isn’t too far from where we live. I first thought we had had some bad luck with the weather, but as the day went on it cleared up and we ended up having a great time at Greenwich.

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Greenwich Park is so beautiful and it has a great view over the city of London. With Canary Warf in the background and the city itself a bit further in the horizon it is a perfect spot for a day date in the city!

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For those of you who doesn’t know (I didn’t make the connection until we were there) this is where the GMT, the Greenwich Mean Time is set. Meaning that the time of the worlds is set from that point. Anywhere that is 3 hours before us is GMT +3 and somewhere that is 5 hours behind us if GMT -5. Pretty cool right? As Greg and I was talking about, it is as if we are standing in the middle of time, right where it starts. Not only is time set from Greenwich, but also longitude and latitude is based of Greenwich Park. The longer longitude and latitude it is on a map, the further away you are from Greenwich. So being at the top of Greenwich park, one can think that you are not only where time is set from, in a way you are also in the center of the world. I thought that was pretty amazing to think about!

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We walked around the park, philosophized about time and distance, grabbed a coffee and sat down watching all the people and dogs in the park.

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We saw this beautiful Golden Retriever and I started nagging Greg for a dog again. He said something about us not having a garden but I chose to ignore that and continued my campaign to get a Golden Retriever haha.

After the park we went for lunch in Greenwich before heading home for a cheat day of Chinese food, chocolate, cheesecake and a couple of movies.
All in all it was the perfect day.

I think it is so important in a relationship to take time to spend quality time together, such as going to the park, to lunch or just for a walk every now and then. It is so easy to slip on that especially when living together. I would hate for us to just fall into a routine of work and home, not really appreciating each other.
I can tell already after one year of living together that that is an easy trap to fall into so these dates is important to me.

Today we are back to weekdays, Greg has just come home from work and I have spent the day studying. I went a bit overboard with the sweets last night so I have been feeling a bit unwell today. But as yesterday was Easter I will give myself a pass on that.

I hope all you guys have had an amazing weekend and a great start to the week!

– Camilla