It's crazy to think that it's already 2016, especially since to me it still feels like 2009 was just two years ago. It's a new year, so naturally everyone is going to try improve their lives in every way possible. This is very hard for me to do considering the fact that January is one of the most stressful months of the year, full of exams and assignments that I'm struggling to keep up with. But hey, I'm doing the best I can.

This year I wanted to set myself a few realistic goals which I can hopefully keep up throughout the whole year, and even for my whole life. One of my biggest flaws is that I am the queen of procrastination. I've come to realise that this has an effect on every aspect of my life; whether it's university, friendships, my health and basically everything else you could think of. I am the type of person who could spend a week locked up alone in my room and be completely fine with it. And although this is my personality, it is not entirely healthy to do so and I sometimes end up feeling like I'm wasting my life away. So my main aim this year is to do more. Yes, this is a very vague statement but I've also set myself little individual goals to help myself be more productive.

1. Be healthier

This is probably the one that I want to work on the most. I've never really been the type of person to take notice of what I eat, I've never been to the gym and I just don't give my body the attention that it needs. I don't plan on eating salads every day and working out at 7am each morning, because that's very unrealistic for me and frankly I don't have the time or energy to do so. However, what I want to do is to be more careful with my meals in general, and not just eat anything I want whenever I want it. Also, I am trying very hard to keep hydrated - and I'm doing well so far! I have a bad habit of barely drinking any water all day so I'm doing my best to drink 2 litres every day because it is so good for you (it's hard but it's doable). Finally, I want to go walking regularly. I am very lucky to live right near the promenade where there's an amazing view of the sea but I don't take advantage of it.

2. Work harder

This is mainly related to University, seeing as I am now in my second year and things are getting more serious and much harder. I somehow need to find the motivation to do my best throughout the whole scholastic year, not just during exam month. I definitely need to read more books, especially since English is one of my main subjects. Apart from University, I also want to find more time for this blog and try to get more involved in the blogging community.

3. Travel more

For me, travelling to different countries is one of my favourite things to do. I love learning about different cultures, meeting different people, and experiencing the different ways of life in general. Lately I have been managing to go abroad about four times a year (with a lot of help from my very generous parents). I mostly tend to travel to places in the UK or Italy, because they are close to home and more 'familiar' to me in a sense. However I want to start visiting countries which are not as similar to what I am used to. Last year I had the opportunity to go to Turkey and it was one of the best experiences of my life. This year I already have two trips planned: I am travelling to Dublin in April to watch 5SOS in concert, and I am travelling to Budapest in August to attend the Sziget festival. I'm also trying my best to pay for everything myself, as I hate asking my parents for money. Somehow I have managed to save up so far and I'm definitely going to keep that up. I don't know if there will be any other trips in store for me this year, but I'm extremely excited for the ones I have planned and I already know that they're going to be incredible.

I hope this post gives someone the inspiration they were looking for to get motivated this year and set some goals for themselves. Personally, reading other people's new year's resolutions and seeing how ambitious they are has made me more excited about mine. I hope that I manage to stick to my goals and to be happy with myself and what I will achieve this year. I also hope everyone had a good time during the holidays and has a very happy new year!

xo

One of my favourite things to do during Christmas time is organising Secret Santa with my friends. We usually do this every year and I think it's a great idea because everyone gets a gift and no one ends up broke! As we get older, we all get busier and don't meet up with some people as much as we would like to. So it's also a nice event which allows you and your friends to get together.

The first thing I bought was the 'Golden Wonder' box from Lush. This includes the Golden Wonder bath bomb and the Star Dust bath bomb. I've never tried either of these bath bombs but they did smell amazing, and Lush never really disappoints. I think the Lush boxes are perfect gifts as they aren't expensive, and they come in really pretty wrapping too! We don't have Lush shops in my country so I thought it would be an even nicer gift for my friend since she can't buy them whenever she wants.

The other two things I got her are both from Primark. First I picked out a plain rose gold necklace which I thought was really pretty. I think jewellery is always a good present cause you can never really have enough, can you? I also picked up a woolen headband from Primark because my friend is going to be abroad for New Year's Eve and I knew she wanted one since it's going to be quite cold.

None of these gifts are anything ridiculously expensive but I would personally love to receive something like this for Christmas. Even though these gifts are quite ordinary and you could give them to almost anyone, I felt like she would enjoy them a lot more because they are things that she wanted and that she's mentioned before. So I think it's always important to be a bit more thoughtful when it comes to buying gifts, which is obviously much easier when it's a good friend of yours. I hope these gift ideas will be helpful to some of you, and I'd love to hear some of your ideas too!

Last month my brother graduated from his Masters degree at the University of Edinburgh, so my family and I went up there for a few days for his graduation ceremony. I've been to Edinburgh quite a few times in the past year, but I had never been there in Christmas time before. I LOVE Christmas but I usually find it quite hard to get into the festive spirit when I'm at home since it's still really hot and sunny outside! So naturally I was super excited to visit Edinburgh at this time of year and it did actually put me in the Christmas spirit.

This was mainly thanks to the massive Christmas market that is found right across all of the shops on the main street. There was everything from a Ferris wheel to an ice skating rink, and everything looked absolutely beautiful. All the stalls in the market had such cute things and if I could I would have probably bought something from each one. Obviously I did not do that haha, but I did buy a few little gifts for some people back at home.

On our last night in Edinburgh we went round the Christmas market all together, and ate a few things from there as well. It was ridiculously cold and it rained a bit too but it didn't make the experience any less wonderful. I also had a waffle with Nutella and strawberries which was probably one of the greatest things I've ever tasted in my life (not even exaggerating).

The Christmas market and all of the other Christmas decorations made the whole trip so much more special. It really helped to make me happy and excited for Christmas even though it doesn't feel as festive here in Malta. My mum and I already agreed that we would love to visit Edinburgh at the same time again next year, so hopefully it won't be long until I'm back there!

xo

This post is way overdue, but I've been ridiculously busy in the past month and now I'm finally getting my life back together. If you've read my previous post you would know that my friend and I were in the UK for a few days at the end of October (aka Halloween!!!!!) We spent two days in Sheffield where we went to a One Direction concert which was probably the best night of my entire existence, and then we went all the way to the beautiful city of Brighton and spent a few days there.

I think it's safe to say that I completely fell in love with Brighton. The best word I can think of to describe it is 'cute'. Everything and everywhere and everyone is just so CUTE. I mean, there were literally little colourful hearts drawn on the floor - who does that? Cute people, that's who. I love all the little quirky shops full of random things that you didn't know you needed in your life; but you do need them, all of them. I loved walking on the pier and by the beach, it was all just really lovely. The weather wasn't even too bad either! I was expecting it to be freezing but the sun was actually visible which was a bit surprising haha. We also went to some incredible restaurants, namely 'The Breakfast Club' and 'Burgers And Cocktails' - amazing!

Every person we met was so friendly and we felt as though we could easily get along with anyone. Strangely enough, most of the people we spoke to asked us why we chose to visit Brighton from all places because they didn't think of it as anywhere special. Whereas my friend and I both agreed that it would be one of our top places to live in. I rarely fall in love with places so much but this was definitely a city that had an effect on me, and I'm surely going to be back in Brighton one day.

xo

Last month I was lucky enough to experience one of the best trips of my life, alongside my best friend. Last December we bought tickets to go watch One Direction perform in Sheffield on the 29th October 2015. This was obviously the highlight of the holiday but I was really excited to visit both Sheffield and Brighton too. We decided to spend two nights in Sheffield, and travel to Brighton the day after the concert to spend another two nights there.

We flew to London, so travelling to Sheffield was quite a struggle; especially since we're not used to catching any trains back at home. We basically spent about 8 hours travelling from 7am, which was obviously quite exhausting. However that didn't stop us from heading straight to the Meadowhall shopping mall as soon as we arrived. 

All the things I was fascinated by are probably things that most people encounter on a daily basis, but for me everything was completely different than what I'm used to. Firstly, I now understand why so many people are obsessed with Autumn. In my country Autumn doesn't really exist; we just have really sunny days and every now and then there's a bad rainy day. So the first thing I noticed once we arrived in Sheffield was how cold it was, and all the pretty leaves, and basically just that feeling of Autumn which I completely fell in love with.

I was also really impressed with the Meadowhall shopping centre, which is huge. Again, we don't have 75% of those shops or restaurants in Malta so it's always a bit hard to control yourself from buying everything you lay your eyes on. We chose to walk from our hotel to the shopping centre as it wasn't too far away, and it was just a really lovely walk to be honest.

Needless to say, the One Direction concert was beyond incredible; but I will be uploading another post dedicated to the whole concert. I'll also be uploading another post about the time we spent in Brighton (which by the way, is absolutely beautiful). 

xo