Not swimming

What you do on an Easter holiday? Nothing. Certainly not swim.

I’m currently in Croatia.

And it’s been rainy and windy and it’s freezing. I’m definitely not swimming, I didn’t even bring my swimming costume here because that’s how sure I am I won’t be doing any swimming this holiday.

Can someone please explain to me then why I find the hotel next to the beach still filled with people and one or two crazy people having a splash. One word my friends. Brits.

I was born in Britain. I have British born friends. I’ve never lived elsewhere. But I don’t have British blood or heritage. I come from sunny lands where swimming in this weather seems like a massive joke. It’s as funny as short sleeves in winter.

My theory….is that there are people being born, let’s call them Newbloods, who can’t feel the cold. The ones I’ve seen are usually British, but you never know, there can be the occasion anomaly. The word they use for freezing degrees is ‘refreshing.’

A bit like that dude I once watched about, how he swims in Antarctic seas and feels nothing. I don’t know, don’t really remember.

But the point is, I have no idea why I’m in this goddamn country at this time of year. I only wanted to come here because my cousin said she’d come.

Now here’s the key difference. My cousin is a new blood. It must come from her half Irishness. And I’m not. And I don’t care how cheap these tickets were but non-Newbloods should not be here.

So I guess the moral of the story here is, don’t let newblood cousins choose your holidays, when you can be curled up at home doing nothing.

-Lily

(I wrote this a few days ago, I left my charger in another country so when I ran out of battery I couldn’t post.)

What The Fuck. 📱

This is what happens when people randomly decide for you that your gonna go on holiday, and when other people INSIST on packing for you. Yes, you heard right. These so called savages (my family) didn’t let me pack my own things when we ( cough cough ‘they’ ) decided we were gonna go on a lil roadtrip to another part of the country. I packed most I was allowed, BUT THEY TOLD ME, they told me they packed my phone and the charger.

They packed the phone all right, but they didn’t pack the charger. Apparently they left it on the windowsill after I let them borrow it. Savages.

I soon ran out of battery and was left with a poor tired phone, with nothing to charge it.

I asked everyone we met in this goddamn country if they had a iPhone charger and no one had one. These people are Samsung lovers. I know. It’s sickening.

It isn’t till now, after about 5 days that I some random person I share a surname with (no joke I actually don’t know who they are) lent me their charger.

I can check my email.

I can take photos ( which is basically the most important thing in holidays )

And, the most holy of them all, I can chill with Netflix.

Sure, I’m gonna run out of battery soon. But who cares, I FEEL SO ALIVE.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people that can’t live without they’re phones, though it sounds like it. I simply didn’t think this would happen and put too much reliance on my phone for the holiday.

Usually, I’d have a computer to check emails, a camera to take photos and dvds to watch, or simply something better to do.

But when you don’t bring any of those things and it’s always raining outside, you kind of do a massive flop on your plans. Luckily the weathers getting better, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want this beautiful chunk of technology to be fully loaded up.

-Lily

Holiday Packing

I’ll skip straight to the point.

The basic essentials:

• Clothes, remember pjs (duh)
• Book
• Toothbrush
• Phone and phone charger
• ……Um

I can’t think of any more things you need so ima skip to other things that I have packed. And I’m gonna spend a good 5 minutes trying to remember them.

5 minutes later:

• Face day cream thing
• I took my GoPro
• Gum
• Contact lenses
• Earphones
• A little bag that can fit my books

And a some study books.

Now, here’s what other people might also bring:

• Hairbrush (ok I forgot)
• Makeup (ikr, some people are crazy)
• Snacks for the journey
• Purse (I just grabbed plain notes and stuffed them in the front pocket of my suitcase like an idiot)
• A handbag

Ima have a break here to talk about handbags. Like why? Ok I get little ones or ones that fit in suitcase without taking up place. But those huge unfoldable ones that make sure you can’t pack half the things you want. Ok, so there are those people being like, ‘well I can bring an extra bag with me, so yeah.’ Ok, fine, lovely, I can too but I filled a bag with books, just saying. But those people who don’t have an extra-bag kinda flight or they’re struggling with space… DITCH THE BAG. What are you doing? Phone, purse, pockets, done!

If you have kids who want to put random stuff in your completely empty completely useless bag. Tell them to hold the thing they’re carrying. Build them arm muscles! 💪.

I’ve actually had this conversation before, and people always try to convince me otherwise. They talk about phone and purses, which I already said should go in pockets. Then they mention passports and documents, may I remind people of the beautiful suitcases you have. Epically if that suitcase has a front pocket in it. Makeup bags? Suitcase! Random hats and scarfs and gloves? Suitcase! Laptop? Why in the name of all things holy, would you carry a laptop in your handbag. I’ve seen this done so many times. FOR GODS SAKE. Suitcase!

There’s also the excuse of, ‘it’s easier.’ Just stop yourself there. You lazy, fabric pouch carrying weirdo.

….now. The most heard excuse. ‘I feel safer with it.’

…..

………..

……………..

What the duck 🦆.

They talk of not wanting their passports to be in their front pockets in fear someone will steal it. If that’s how paranoid you are, bury it deep in your suitcase or put a lock on the little zip up things or something. I still think that’s easier than carrying one of these:

This. Is a very funny photo.

Now back to the listing:

• Travel adapter (I have some where I’m going so didn’t bring it)
• Diarrhoea treatment (I just went online to see if there was a really good one, so I saw this and threw it in there just to grab your attention.)
• Other electrics (😂)
• Accessories (some people pack these and don’t just wear it on them)
• Your positive attitude (as in, I’ve run out of ideas)

So, to summarise, you don’t need lots, bring a bunch anyway, just stop yourself with handbags unless you have an extra bag flight, and diarrhoea treatment IS DEFINITELY A NECESSITY!-Lily(Can we just appreciate how I did not name a lot of essentials or things I brought but I managed to end up with too much to fit a suitcase. Where’s the logic?)

Christmas is all about Friends and Friends

Not friends and family. Oh no.

I spent my Christmas at my friends house. Her 5 cousins, her brother, her mum, her two aunties, her uncle, one of her aunties husbands, her cat, her guineapig, her fish and Olivia.

I came late cause I was asleep till 2. This was all because I don’t actually celebrate Christmas, so I don’t take it seriously and go to sleep really late on Xmas Eve. I just walk around the empty streets each year, which is why my friend told me to come to her house for Xmas.

I always find Xmas funny in a way, because I never hear mention of Jesus Christ or the birth of Jesus. Just presents and family and food. I guess that’s what people find special about on Christmas, the fact that they made it into something for everyone, I don’t know.

The most religious moment was when the youngest member of the family, that was a little girl, said the prayers. It was adorable even though I didn’t understand a single word but ‘amen’ because she mumbled.

The whole thing was just a cooped up little feast with presents everywhere you look. I went to put my stuff down, when I arrived, in the only space left and I hit the cat accidentally. He was sitting down in that clear space, not occupied by presents, and I didn’t see because he was the same colour as the floor. So all I managed was to make a very bewildered cat out of him.

There was still a lot of stress and my friend actually looked bored at times. And I didn’t understand why, because she’d been waiting for this the whole year. One of her cousins was crying and the youngest one kept slapping me. But it all came together when we brought out the Nintendo switch and about 6 of us played Just Dance. I never knew that something that only two people could play at a time, could satisfy the 6.

-Lily

The Only Way to Travel

1)Find some distant, not-too-distant relative that you know and lives in the country you want to visit.

2)Skype that relative often.

3)Mention wanting to go to that country.

4)Meet each other when your good and proper friends.

5)BUY YOUR FLIGHT TICKET!

The only down side is if your a fussy eater like me.

My 3rd cousin or something has invited me to America. But I doubt it’ll be all doughnuts and burgers.

BUT the main positive is having family all around the world and being able to travel to them. You’d be surprised to find where your blood ends up.

-Lily

Relaxing is Probably the Most Painful Activity

There’s now a water park near my grandparents house. Everything is epic, except for this one slide that shoved my costume so far up my butt that it looked like my ass was eating toxic waste candy.

And my little cousin threw herself on this huge slide and ended up in crutches because she furiously jumped in it. And when she landed it shifted her hip bone.

I know it shouldn’t be funny. But while I was writing this post, she forgot she hurt herself and started running with the dog.

Two steps later, she was on the floor. We’re now both laughing at her fail.

-Lily

I don’t Know About Paradise but it ain’t a Sandy Beach!

I’ve been to different countries on these holidays, and every year I forget how disgusting sand is.

You can shower yourself twice. You can hover the whole floor. You can make everyone around you do the same. But you will still wake up with a god damn sand-pit around your feet when you wake up.

Cara was telling me, when I send her pics of the rocky beach, how it’s crappy because ‘when you think paradise, you think of fucking sandy beaches.’

I recently cut my foot jumping from a high rock and hitting a sharp object in the water. So the next day, when I DID go to a sandy beach, the god damn stuff just kept hiding itself in my wounds. Same with the nails. And it kept getting on my food and I couldn’t touch anything because my hands were covered in sand.

Don’t even get me started on getting suncream on yourself when your covered in the stuff.

Hopefully paradise doesn’t involve small, crushed, wannabe rocks.

-Lily

Summer read list

Okay, okay I promise this is the last summer post…. maybe

1. The Knife of Never Letting Go
2. The General in his Labyrinth
3. Moby Dick
4. Great Expectations
5. The Clan of the Cave Bear
6. The Crown
7. How to practise – Dalai Lama
8. Twilight
9. Cuckoos song
10. The Ask and the Answer
11. How Hard Can Love Be?
12. Red Queen

It’s very random :p

Cara xx

My summer bucketlist

My favourite part of summer is the bucketlist that comes with it. Mine isn’t that fun but y’all I’m not that fun either.

/ means I’ve done it already

1. Do an all nighter /
2. Stay out past curfew with friends /
3. Get a henna tattoo /
4. Have a glow up day
5. Make a movie fort
6. Get a tan /
7. Change appearance /
8. Declutter
9. Go farm /
10. Spend a day tech free
11. Get lost in a park /
12. Get lost in a urban area /
13. Watch the sunrise
14. Cover 2 songs on uke
15. Finish season 4 of OITNB /
16. Do 2 paintings
17. Get nails done
18. Read 10 books
19. Grow nails
20. Do staionary shopping
21. Buy an item of clothing
22. Fix and sell laptop
23. Learn how to french and Dutch braid hair in 5 min
24. Make cookies and lemonade and eat outside
25. Write a song
26. Spoil cuddles /
27. Have a water fight with kids /
28. Wake uo at 6 am for 2 weeks
29. Have a picnic /
30. Wake uo at 5 am 2x
31. Go on a pedal boat
32. Try a new food/drink

Cara xx