Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hey readers!
I hope that you all had a great Christmas season and are thinking long and hard about your New Years Resolutions which are certain to be forgotten January 1st. 
This Christmas I got new golf clubs, some clothes, lots of movies and new Burberry Body Perfume. Overall it was awesome. I even got The Rescuers Down Under- which is a Disney movie set in Australia. 

For Boxing Day we went to Golf Town as a family and took advantage of their sales. I got a new pair of golf shoes for only $50! My brother got heaps of stuff and my parents left with considerably lighter wallets. 

Then we went to Buffalo, New York,  for the Sabres vs. Washington Capitals hockey game, which was also very fun and exciting.

Finally we headed back across the border to Niagara Falls Canada to hit the Fallsview Casino. It was a great little trip.

The day we arrived at home my bff turned up to spend a few days here with my family, and take part in our New Years Eve traditions, which will be taking place tomorrow! I'm so excited. I LOVE New Years Eve. It has all the promise of new beginnings, and no responsibility to behave on the night. We don't go too crazy. A few friends come over to hang out in our basement and play Rock Band, board games and have several drinks and even more snacks. 

Well that's all for now, I'll fill you in on how it goes in the new year!

Christmas Traditions

Happy Holidays Readers!


In the spirit of Christmas I thought I'd share a few of the traditions that my family does when we are home for the holidays. 
First of all- "The Elf Calendar" this thing wreaked havoc on my parents lives for years! Instead of the chocolate advent calendars you get in stores, we have a beautiful, hand made calendar with pockets that "the elf" fills each day with one red and one green candy. This poor "elf" had to get up at the crack of dawn before my brother and I and fill the pockets because we would come flying down the stairs in our p.j's each morning for a month looking for our sugar fix. On christmas eve we get pajamas instead of a treat to wear on Christmas day. Then on Christmas day we get a giant candy cane.


On Christmas Eve we usually attend the "midnight mass" church service and then we each get to open one present. My parents don't put their gifts under the tree until the 25th, so it's usually just picking between my brother and I's gifts for eachother. Then my brother and I watch The Grinch (the original cartoon movie) and read christmas stories from when we were kids. Both of us are in our twenties now, but it never gets old. 


Christmas day is the usual chaos of unwrapping gifts and trudging through wrappings, trying on new clothes, and playing with stuff or watching movies. We also always have porridge for breakfast, and it's the only day a year we eat it really. 


Boxing day our family opens stockings filled with all kinds of things you could get at the dollar store; chocolate, toothbrushes, gum, pens, picture frames, and always a clementine orange. I like this tradition a lot because it makes christmas last a little bit longer. 

me, mom and brother in front of the tree

in the hood with dad

putting on the star

Taa-daa!

The finished product!

Tis the season! Happy Holidays everyone :)

It's Hockey Night Tonight

This monday my awesome father surprised my brother and I with Leafs tickets! For those of you who don't know what this is, it's the National Hockey League Toronto Maple Leafs team- and very exciting to see as tickets can get pricey.
The Leafs haven't always been the best team, but they have a massive fan based despite their less than favourable record, and I am one of those fans.
So monday my mom, brother and I drove into Toronto for dinner and a game and stayed at the fancy Royal York Hotel while my poor dad slaved away at work. The game was very exciting and it was also really nice to take a bunch of pictures around the city (again). 
We went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Surprisingly, I ate spaghetti and meatballs, it was delicious. Then my brother and I wandered over to the ACC (Air Canada Centre- the arena) for the game and my mom went back for some R & R at the hotel. We had fantastic seats, and they even let you order food and drinks from your seats and deliver it to you! I got popcorn and a beer (in true Canadian fashion it is impossible to have hockey and no beer) while my brother got the most disgusting nachos known to man! The cheese came in a gooey plastic bag that you had to squirt onto the chips- I nearly puked.
The actual hockey was super exciting. It was tied at 2-2 (we played the Los Angeles Kings) and went into 5 minutes of overtime and then a shoot out. Unfortunately Toronto lost, as the last shooter, Brown of the Kings scored the only goal in the overtime/shootout ending. You can't say we didn't get our moneys worth though!

Statue outside the Hockey Hall of Fame

Lighted park

Me and the fam in front of the bright tree

My mom with the matching snowman

Fancy tree inside The Royal York

The repulsive nachos and cheese sauce

Enjoying the grossness

The ACC

Me and my brother

Shoot out pictures

The winning goal

My fan outfit

Toronto Trip

Hey Everyone!
So I am back to touring the Great White North of the world instead of the Hot Sunny South. This weekend the bff and I took off to Toronto to see our favourite band The Arkells play (some good old boys from Hamilton Ontario) and also to visit a friend of ours who recently moved there.
It was quite the trip. We had dinner in a very fancy restaurant at the top of our hotel with a view of the city skyline. It was beautiful and delicious! 

Stereotypical Canadian roadtrip photo

All dressed up for dinner

The view from Toula at the top of The Westin Harbour Castle

Then we headed out to this super hipster bar to see our friend's friend DJ. This was quite the experience. I wish I could perfectly describe to you all what "hipster" means- but basically it's being too cool for life or anything pop culture. To sum it up, I watched these guys live DJ- which you would think means play music and add in sounds and mixes as you go- NOPE! It meant these guys recording and playing a bunch of weird metallic sounds, plugging in wires and contraptions that filled the room with the sounds of a robot being sacrificed. It was quite an interesting evening, and much cheaper than my nights in Melbourne so I was pleased.


Speaking of cheaper! I got my first Tim Hortons fix on this road trip- a soup, a pop, a roll, a donut for under $5!! This would be unheard of in Australia where a coffee and a muffin will run you about $6.50. Craziness.


Saturdays morning was a slow start from the night before, but we got ourselves up and had to get some food. We chose a diner near the Eaton Centre across from Massey Hall called Fran's. It was delicious. I had really missed diners as that's not really a big thing in Melbourne. Then we headed to the Eaton Centre to look at all the things we can't afford, and see the Christmas decorations which did not disappoint.

Then it was off to the CN Tower, which I took about a hundred pictures of. On the way we saw the skaters and a lovely christmas tree in Nathan Phillips Square, and the Much Music building. After the CN Tower we looked at the railway exhibit and the Steam Whistle Brewery (although sadly, all the tours were done for the day). We also stumbled upon a park, and naturally had to take some pictures there. It was a great day outside and the weather was incredibly warm for december at about 10 degrees!

We also saw a bunch of snowmen that were in various locations around the city. They were all painted differently, and looked really cool. 

Finally it was time to get ready for the concert. I could not wait. We had seen The Arkells open for Girl Talk about 2 years ago and fell in love with their sound when they only really had one hit out. Now with their second album they are producing some major star quality material. The show was amazing, although even with my heels on I had to peek over shoulders to see the stage. We had a awesome time!

On the way home we stopped by the bff's family's house for lunch, to play with his puppy, and catch a The Bears game (if you don't know who The Bears are or what sport they play, I'm shaking my head at you). Here are some pics of Annie the puppy, she's a sweetheart and a half.

And this is Harley, who is not pleased to be photographed

It was a great weekend away and really made both of us want to move to the Toronto area. It's always been a favourite city of mine as it's 2 hours away from where I grew up, and so walkable. I love it!

Canada can be just as fun as Australia, just a little bit colder.