A Moments Grace

Hello sugar,

It's a sad day when you type the letter 'blo' into your search bar on your web browser and it doesn't autofill with the remaining 'gger.com'. Arrrr, I am so sorry that I have been the most inconsistent internet person you have ever known. Let me tell you something though; university is as hectic as anyone told me. "Wait, UNIVERSITY?!" You say. Heck yeah, this baby is getting her quality tertiary education!!

So as many of you know, I was constantly complaining about how many exams I was doing last year. The reason for that was because it was my final year of high school (i.e. year 12, senior year, last year of university I think for my people in the UK), and those exams would ultimately dictate (although it would not have been the be all and end all) what university and courses I would gain acceptance into. Hallelujah! That milestone is over, and my stress and hard work was rewarded when I immediately got acceptance into one of my desired courses in one of my desired universities. However, little did I know that that was definitely not going to be the end of my university acceptance journey.

After dwelling on this initial acceptance, which was into a Media (Communications and Journalism) degree at University of New South Wales, for a few weeks I woke one day to see a new acceptance under my University Admissions Centre app (thanks UAC for giving me one good resource in my HSC journey). Wait, what was that? The late Zaha Hadid ringing from her beautiful headstone (no disrespect, this women will forever be one of my idols)? No? My modern design aspiration Ian Moore? No? Maybe Le Corbusier whispering in my ear his secrets of Chandigarh?

For those of you who haven't caught on yet: I'M STUDYING ARCHITECTURE! And not just this, but in the best architecture school in the nation of Australia. I am a happy Jan. I am the happiest Jan. I am the happiest me, because I feel like I am finally in the exact place I am meant to be in this point in my life. That is - exhausted, getting approximately five hours of sleep a night on average, hardly maintaining an eating routine and loving every single freaking minute of it!

This routine has been put on pause for the minute and in good timing too, because I don't think I'm meant to be awake at three every night. I am on semester break! This means two things: parties and time to take a few breathers. I'm hoping those breathers will give me time to write for you. As promised on Twitter, here's my blog post for you on this fine Tuesday (which I've spent watching Clueless and Grimm, brushing my pup, taking him for a walk and making food). I'll be popping back soon, and I hope you will too.

Much love,

Duchess

2017

Hello 2017, you spectacular year you!

I have so much planned for this blog in the new year and I cannot wait to share it with you. The new year has invited a lot of inspiration for me, and it's calling me to quickly write it down and share it. But patience is ringing, and it's a call we must answer, because I'm lazy and haven't elaborated on my ideas enough yet. Expect: music, books, food and travel. Yes, yes, yes! I'm a bundle of excitement.

So on this day, marking a week and a couple of dyas after this glorious year started, I invite you to join me as I re-invent this space. You are the guest of honour, and I shall be your host, and we shall have an absolutely splendid time.

Enough rambling, expect me oh-so-soon.

Much love,

Duchess

Falling Back In Love

I was sat listening to the most beautiful guitar riffs I've heard in a long time (no really, listen to Simple Pleasures by Jake Bugg), and I thought of you. It was also at that exact moment I was facing a scary moment of nostalgia, as I tried to recollect all the things I have accidentally fallen on out of love with in the hopes of trying to fall back in love with them. So here's a couple that came straight to mind: Jake Bugg's 'Shangira La' album (no, I wasn't kidding, go check it out) and you.

I'm here to announce - I'm back. Maybe not to the same extent I was two years ago (picture this: a confused teenager scurrying back from ballet class to upload their blog post in between jumping into the shower to escape their mum yelling at them that dinner's on the table), but back none the less. Not so much because I feel obligated to, but because I missed writing to you and because it's in moments like this - listening to albums I would love other people to listen to - that I am glad I created a platform in which I could do so (score confused teenager!). I will minimise parenthesis usage now.

You should be happy to hear that I am finished with exams for at least a quarter of a year. I am. Happy that is. To be honest, the reason is simply because I graduated high school and that means that I will consequently have less exams due to, well, less school. It's for that reason that I thought it a good time to re-start-up (re-establish? Sorry) my blog, as a place to document thoughts, emotions and opinions. So here I am, in that confusing space between high school and university/college where I'm still debating what I want to do with my life. What do I want to do with my life? Good question.

Before I get ahead of myself, I would like to address high school. High school was, in tradition and true to it's reputation, a hole of hell for me. I made good friends, and I met amazing people, but I constantly felt suffocated in a place which I could not wait to get out of. The reason I put this blog on pause for a while was because I was so overwhelmed with educational and personal demands, that I realised that my blog was going to become an overbearingly negative place. Getting out of high school was an enormous relief for me, and I didn't shed one tear at graduation because I will not miss it. I may miss the people in there, and seeing my friends routinely everyday, but never the place.

I'm not bashing the education system I am surrounded by, and I am constantly thankful for the opportunity to gain a quality education, by any means. I am simply stating that as a teenager (we have all been there) I found the whole system exhausting. I mean, most days I had to wake up before five thirty, to catch a six thirty train only to get home by four thirty in the afternoon. On some days I would have after school activities, and then come home only to do more school work which would take me to seven thirty when my mother would no-excuses serve the whole family dinner. After dinner came a shower, if I hadn't fit it in before, and then back to school work till about eleven on a good day. Rinse and repeat. Tell me that's not tiring to read. So I perceived graduating high school as not only a new, exciting chapter of my life, but also as an opportunity to pursue interests that appeal to me, without the restraints of a syllabus or the pressure of an exam.

I went to a coding workshop a couple of weeks back, and while it was tremendously confusing, it fuelled my interest in coding. I'm not going to be a millionaire mobile app developer by the end of the year, or any following years in the foreseeable future, but coding is something that really interests me and so I took the time I had to spare as an opportunity to pursue it. In addition to that, I have been taking online courses about coding, but also to establish my ability to use software such as Microsoft, so that I can put it on my resume and have some credibility to my claims. So I suppose you could say that I am falling in love with some things, now that I have been given the time to do so.

Today I'm here to discuss falling back in love with things though, and so I have composed a list of a few of them:

• Gaming: little do you guys know that I thoroughly enjoy both playing and observing games. There are entire branches of huge platforms (YouTube, Reddit) that are entirely dedicated to gaming communities, and as a person that has grown up around an avid gamer (my brother), I think it's incredible to see how it has evolved into a respected hobby and career.
• Reading: oh how I have missed you. Considering all the time I had to read was dedicated to prescribed texts from my school and texts I chose to compose a project for my school work, it felt like a dream to pick up a fiction novel of my own choosing and enjoy the bliss of reading it. So far I've read 'A Long Way Down' by Nick Hornby, 'All The Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven, 'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling (one of my all time favourites) just to name a few. I've been trying to read books that will evoke all kinds of emotions from me (for example, I didn't at all like every aspect of Niven's teen tragicomedy but it was quick to read), as I have been void of them since graduating.
• Documentaries: since downloading Netflix I have been binging on all moving images on a screen. One of them has really stood out for me and that is Ava DuVernay's '13th' - promise me you'll go watch it. 
• TV shows: similarly to docos, it has been a shameless binge fest. Namely on Charlie Brooker's 'Black Mirror' (watch it), 'Gossip Girl' (no shame), 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' (ditto) and 'American Horror Story' (are you proud of me?). I have such a long list of things to start, including Christian Wibe's 'Skam' and 'Making a Murderer', which I have started and has never failed to thrill me. Wish me luck.
• Movies: needless to say, these join this list. I watched Elizabeth Wood's 'White Girl' which was terrible, but redeemed myself with 'Crazy, Stupid Love'. No, really, this dot point should just be romance movies, because that's all I have been watching. 
• Music: again, such a missed pleasure. I will have to write a whole post about this because I don't think a dot point will do it justice.
• Blogging: has this been addressed already? Probably. If not, and if you haven't gathered, I like reading and I like writing my thoughts so I think that should cover it. 

This was meant to be short and sweet, so I'm going to leave here. I missed you, and I can't wait to change this blog to evolve with me. Expect me back soon. 

You know you love me,

I'm joking,

Much love,

Duchess

Movie Review: Aftershock

Hello, hello, hello!

I thought it would be unfair to delve straight back into a post without giving a bit of an explanation first. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you would know that I declared a hiatus just before the Christmas of last year. Doing the maths, or without doing any maths at all, it's not hard to calculate that it's been a substantial amount of time since you've last heard from me on this platform. 

As promised, however, I am following through about hearing from me. To be truthful, I've missed just writing about what I've wanted, and reading about things that purely interest me. Now, if I have time to read, it's a text that I don't enjoy, and if I write, it's for a critical or creative piece which worth will be decided by a number. All that pressure really does take the pure enjoyment out of wanting to write.

I'm not really the kind of person who would complain about getting an education (an exclamation of how much sleep I've got the night before because of school work doesn't count!) so I won't bore you with the depths of how much work I've had to do. I know that you'll understand if I simply say that I stopped writing for so long because of prioritising my school work over leisurely writing at the time, and am continuing with this mindset now. With a four day break from school, I took it as an opportunity for an update, but also a small release. 

During these four days, all of which are public holidays, my family has been able to spend some quality time together from which we had been previously deprived of due to individual commitments. One of our shared interests is that of film, and especially for my father and I, exploring the variation of film within cultures and time periods. That's why, today, we watched a film about devastation and healing: Aftershock by Feng Xiaogang. 

Although I was forced to rely on subtitles due to the foreign language in which it was set, the tragedy that was represented could be felt without dialogue at all. Establishing the film in a familiar familial setting, whether it's familiar to us in practice or just in theory, helps the audience to create a connection to the family and characters being shown. However as the story develops, and a natural disaster that is so commonly known - the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake - unfolds in front of you, the way in which it affects one particular family pushes the audience onto an emotional roller-coaster. 

A true story of forgiveness and healing, this movie is a definite recommend and must watch with the family, although avoid the littlies due to adult scenes, including violence, sex and death. If not to particularly enjoy the film, to comprehend the absolute devastation that this natural disaster caused, and how it influenced so many lives.

One minor, and extremely picky, confusion was felt when a particular character was met. Without a fault in his personality, his voice and acting directly contrasted the emotion that was conveyed through every single other character. Aside from that, this movie was a gut-wrenching journey right from the beginning, with characters you question but appreciate, and with whom you will sympathise and feel for throughout the entirety. 

If you enjoy and/or enjoy movies like this, be sure to check out The Impossible. I watched this a couple of nights ago for the second time, and this time it hit me with even more emotion. Both films a confrontingly accurate depiction of  absolute natural disasters that made me appreciate the fragility of life.

Rate: 8.5/10 -- but make sure you check it out for yourself and tell me what you think below! 

Much love,

Duchess

Hiatus

Hey guys,

I'm really sorry that you haven't heard from me in so long but I just haven't been having any inspiration/motivation to write anything. While I could have given you a rubbish post about random, rambling thoughts and contemplations, which I have a knack for producing when put under stress apparently, I wanted to be able to publish something with pride and certainty. Also, other commitments are being prioritised because I need to focus on the future in the present. For this reason, I've decided to go on a hiatus until further notice, or until I decide whether to continue with this blog or even start another one. You will be hearing from me again though -- as I truly enjoy writing and posting -- I just don't know when.

In the meantime, you can still find me on my Twitter account here.

I hope each and every one of you had a Merry Christmas and have a very happy, positive and successful 2016.

Much love,

Duchess

P.S. See you soon!

Social Media Misconceptions

Hey guys!

How are you doing?

I'm going to start of this post by saying that at one point of my life, I used to scroll through countless Instagrams, Youtube videos, blogs and just admire the way people seemed to live. I would spend endless amounts of time trying to fix myself, although the question of why never seemed to be answered. As I sat here right now scrolling through Instagrams, Youtube videos and blogs (for an entirely different reason), I had a sudden thought - why did it always seem to matter so much?

Being constantly surrounded by social, and other, media puts a whole lot of pressure on people, especially teenagers who still trying to identify themselves, to fit a certain mold. Whether this be by showing them unrealistic photos of what they should aim for, or presenting them with successful people who have had the opportunity to work; it is so easy for a person to watch, see or read something and have a misinterpretation of someone's life. Many people don't understand that what you see on all these various social platforms, is only what the publisher wants you to see.

While a picture, or an article, or a post may have a story hidden behind it, most of the time this hidden story is not exposed, much less explained. This story could be full of negativity, and bad happenings, but you just do not know because you aren't seeing the other half of what is going on. The person who publishes the photo, film or article is in complete control of what you see and what you have access to. This means that although you might think someone is living a perfect life, they are only showing you the parts of their life that are what might be perceived as perfect.

Which makes sense, right? I mean, when was the last time you posted a crying #selfie, or you wrote a whole blog post on how you didn't like your hair when you woke up on Monday morning?

In addition to this above mentioned misconception, about people having perfect lives, it is also important to remember that you should not be constantly comparing yourself to these people. We are all on our own journeys of confidence, and just because some people might view somebody or something as idyllic, it does not mean that subject matter of your admiration is comfortable themselves. On another hand in some similar perspective, you should never compare your beginning to someone else's middle. A lot of the influential people on social media have worked hard to live the life they life, and first and foremost, they have been given the opportunity to work for what they love.

For example, Blogilates has been working since she was 16 to make something of her devotion to Pilates. Due to Cassey's extreme enthusiasm and love of exercise, she has built something for herself that stems from her love of health, and has influenced so many people to develop a love for looking after themselves. You may admire her omg-amazing body, but you have to remember that her fitness and health is her life, and honestly, I'm so glad it is. Another example is the beautiful Michelle Phan who is devoted to beauty. Phan has worked so hard to build her own label, and to build the branch of the industry that she has for herself, and her love of beauty. For all my beauty lovers out there, I wouldn't doubt for a second you have heard of (or even admire) Michelle Phan, but it important to note that beauty is her life and she has slogged to get to where she is today.

It's for this reason that social media, in it's various forms, is such a powerful outlet for spreading a message, and could potentially be used for spreading positivity and energy to almost every body who has access to it. It's become an undeniable truth that we're going to be surrounded by social media, it's just our choice on what we use this as an outlet for.

I have worked very hard to surround myself with media influences that are positive and always make me laugh. Maybe it's time for everyone to do that too? We all know that we already have so many negative things weighing us down, so why would you make the choice to add some more on top of that? It's absolutely your choice on anything to do with social media.

In my personal experience, I tend to stay away from most social media (I write on a social media platform) as it often serves as a distraction, or is just filled with negativity which has a heavy impact on my life. When I do log on, however, I tend to just check up on my friends and plan things as, as I mentioned before, it's a very effective way to communicate with people.

What do you spend most of your time on, and why? Who are your favourite bloggers/Yotubers/Instagram-ers/Tumblr users?

Also wanted to apologise for the consecutive chatty videos, and my irregular (but getting back into the swing of things!) publishing routine. Stay with me, I'm almost there!

Much love,

Duchess

Some Good Ol' Chatter

Hey all!

I'm baaaaaack! I've spent a good many hours contemplating, amongst other things, what my next blog post should be about. I came to the realisation that I haven't been talking to you guys (like a really good, nice jabber) as much as I used to, which is something I really liked to do. I found bits and pieces of the following in drafts that I had started but had never finished and didn't really seem to have a point to, so I thought I'd collab a few of my little thoughts to make a big one. There is probably no sequence, but I thought it'd still be nice.

I know I haven't been as consistent or reliable with my content and publishing as I promised myself I would be, but it's honestly the best I think I could do. As many as you know, my exams were really restricting me on the quality of the content I was able to have access to, and the time I had on my hands to fiddle with. However, my exams are over! And this consequently means that you should be able to expect more enjoyable things out of me in the weeks to come, especially as I'll be going up the coast for a family holiday and may be able to snap a couple of sneaky shots for you guys.

Recently I've actually had a few days off, in which I spent lazing about and doing little somethings with friends, which was lovely. In and amongst this lazing, I have been able to discover a lot of things which really intrigue me. In addition to constantly having a tab open playing some sort of media (whether that be YouTube, movies, or the rare television show - I tend to watch them on proper television), I've been discovering and rediscovering blogs. I think one of the things that really sparked this was the relaunch of the Zoella blog. As many of you know, Zoe Sugg had a bit of a haitus from her blog, in which she took time to rest and think about what she wanted to do. I can happily say that she's back, better then ever, with a blog that is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I am in awe of her design and her new blogging style.

Speaking of bloggers, in much excitement, I actually had a really quirky talk with the beautiful Velvetgh0st on Twitter about food (of all the wonderful things). It was so exciting and such a surreal moment to be able to talk to one of the people whom I spend hours watching on YouTube and read about on their blogs. She was such a lovely person and it was weird to know so many people had seen our conversation too (and to watch the amount of Favourites that kept rolling in from the people who had seen the Tweets).

I've also been doing a little bit (quite a bit more than I'm used to) of shopping to prepare myself for my families visit in the upcoming weeks. I love being able to spend time with my family, whether it be for a few days or four weeks, but I also like being able to feel nice (I know this sounds awfully weird) while doing it. Also considering I would be spending a week or so going up the sunny coast, and many of my clothes were there to help me during the Winter (colder) months, I thought buying some clothes to accommodate me for the next half a year or so was acceptable. The only problem I seem to run into when shopping is that I tend to be drawn towards the tops, and seem to completely neglect the bottom half of a potential outfit Aside from a couple of pairs of jeans (the only couple I own that actually fit...), a couple of pairs of shorts and a few skirts, I don't have that many bottoms to accompany outfits. I guess that'll be my next mission then - to find some bottoms (in concern to clothing, nothing else)!

I've also been exploring, with what free time I've had, into music. I love to stick with what I know, which is generally classified into 'indie rock' or 'soft rock', but I've recently been extending to exploring new artists on YouTube, listening to those albums that you've always had but never been inclined to listen to or rediscovering artists and albums that were once loved but have recently been neglected. I've come to realise that I love artists like Miguel, as well as The Killers and The Kooks. I love being able to love a variety of music, and I love that I sometimes now feel like jumping around my room again because I have something fresh to listen to.

Much to my surprise, I've been watching shows on my laptop when I can! I mean, I'm more of a person to wait till they come on my Aussie television and then record them, but unfortunately most of the shows that I want to watch, I do not have access to, and I'm trying not to succumb to the temptation of Netflix (which has just been recently introduced to Australia). My most recent guilty pleasure is The Vampire Diaries (oh, I know, I give myself enough confused looks), but I love to stick to my roots as well. Speaking of which, can we talk about How To Get Away With Murder and Empire. They both surprised me by coming out close to each other, and I got to enjoy them with my older cousin too. I've also recently started watching Quantico (with fellow Indian Priyanka Chopra) and although I've watched only one episode, I feel like it's going to be a good 'un.

I am meant to be focusing on school. Sigh. A bit of an exaggeration though, because I've been keeping up with school work for now. I just can't wait till I feel like my back's breaking with work that's expected of me.

My family friends just came over so I was playing with their little daughter, who was telling me a variation of Cinderella, which she told me had a big 'story twist' at the end which was to be a surprise. It made me so happy that the twist was that Cinderella said no to the Prince when the hat (we had to scavenge around my ten year old Barbie's and came up short) fit her head properly because Cinderella still had to finish studying and get a job before she wanted to get married to anyone. When I asked her why she put this twist in, she simply said "because Cinderella wasn't ready and that's okay." This genuinely made me have good butterflies, and a huge smile.

That's all for now, I hope you've had a brilliant past few days and continue to have a brilliant week.

Much love,

Duchess