Summer Highlights

What a long summer it has been! Well, that’s probably because January alone lasted like 3 months. Despite that though, it has been a fun summer and it has been super sunny almost every day. I think it’s fair to say that this season treated me well because I have been happy, laughing and just doing me. We are ‘Marching’ into autumn now and yet again, I have put together a list of moments that made me happy this summer.

• 1 000 blog follows/subscribers

What a way to end the year 2017 and what a way to start summer. Being a blogger is really harder than it seems so my heart was doing endless somersaults when I woke up to a notification saying I have 1 000 readers. I am forever grateful to each and everyone who is subscribed because the thought of having so many people from all over the world committed to my blog really keeps me going.

• New tenant

The previous tenant had signed the lease to leave at the end of November and I immediately thought to myself, “How bad can his timing be? December is literally in a couple of weeks and I can’t afford to be broke during the festive season,”. Haha. I delayed putting the advert back up for people to see and on the day I actually did, I got a new tenant and my December was saved.

• Christmas day

It’s always a good time when I am with my family and extended family but never did I expect to have so much fun and laughter on Christmas day. It was too much. My aunt had hired a jumping castle for the kids but everyone and I mean everyone had a turn. Since we had forgotten to buy a new Christmas tree, my mother dug out an innocent plant from the garden and wallah, we had ourselves a Christmas tree. I couldn’t stop laughing! Especially when she actually started putting Christmas decorations on it. At night, we opened our presents and got to find out who our secret Santas were, it’s pretty impressive how well we knew each other’s desires. I got shorts and a vest – my aunt knows me too well! Imagine a room of 25+ happy people.

• Mini unintentional photoshoot

On a random sunny day, my sister started taking pictures of me as we were about to leave the house and for the first time ever I was actually quite confident and enjoyed having someone taking pictures of me. I have never been comfortable with that but ever since that day I don’t mind handing over my phone to a friend or my sibling to snap away.

• McDonalds at midnight

After hours of chilling with a friend they decided to take me on a midnight drive to McDonalds – I love night-time drives and I love McDonalds so you can only imagine how happy I was.

• Paid the toll

Paying the toll for the car behind had been on my Bucket List for a while. This one time when we were travelling to Port Shepstone, I paid the toll for the car that was following us and after doing so, the lucky old grandpa caught up to us just to say Thank You. Ahhhhh bliss!

• Bagain picnic basket

I remember how excited and surprised I was this day, my siblings and I went to a thrift shop in town because my sister wanted a book to read but little did I know that I would find myself a treasure. Haha. I got a huge picnic basket for only R30 (which is like $3)! Imagine! I just wanted to go home and have a picnic in our own garden, the way I was so excited. Nonetheless, Amanda and I got to use it when we went away for the weekend.

• A surprise on the hiking trail

On a warm Saturday afternoon, I went on a relaxed hike and after 20 minutes of walking up and down small paths, we bumped into zebras and my face just lit up. How casually they were just strolling fascinated me because I had never seen a zebra up close and I actually didn’t even know if they are dangerous or not but luckily my friend knew that they are harmless so I didn’t really panic.

• Harness Magazine

I became one of the writers for Harness Magazine – a magazine based in Columbia that empowers women. We share our stories and advice to other women, my first article “My Struggle with Self-love” was published on the 19th of February and more is yet to come.

• Got featured on Footprints Writer’s Manual

Footprints is a platform where writers are featured every week to give advice to aspiring writers. I had to briefly talk about my experience with blogging and give tips on maintaining a blog. This kinda made me feel big because it showed me that my work doesn’t go unnoticed and it made me feel like I am wise enough to actually start guiding people, or something like that.

• Turned 21

On the 9th of February I finally turned 21 and now I really feel like an adult (for now it’s still just a feeling haha maybe as time goes by I will start acting like one). Since I was turning 21, I shared 21 facts and stories with you on the post 21st Birthday – 21 Questions.

• Ash Wednesday

I hadn’t been to church for quite a long time, something told me to go on Ash Wednesday though and it was totally worth it. That evening, the priest emphasised the importance of solitude and how he was explaining it was quite interesting. Also, I got a crystal stone which I keep with me all the time.

• Ascot Bush Lodge

My favourite weekend of February! So much happened at Ascot Bush Lodge and I was with one of the coolest people in my life. Read about our fun stay at the lodge here.

• Pool game with Amanda

Okay so while we were at Ascot Bush Lodge, Amanda and I decided to go play pool at the bar and up to this day we are grateful for the fact that no one was watching us when we were playing. It. Was. A. Mess. First of all, we did not play according to the rules (because we didn’t even know them) and secondly (which is the worst part of it all), we didn’t know that the white ball comes out on the other end when you accidentally score it so we just used the black ball as the white ball. We couldn’t stop laughing at ourselves all night.

• Black Panther

You thought I would miss out on the experience of watching Black Panther at the cinemas? Haha. Never! The hype that people gave the movie before it came out was really worth it because that is a very nice movie – the cast, the plot, the humour, literally everything was perfect. My sister and I couldn’t stop talking about it all week long so my mother and brother decided to go watch it too. WAKANDA FOREVER!

• Cartoon HD app

My sister told me about this app where you can download movies and series and to me that immediately sounded too good to be true. Funny thing is, it kinda was too good to be true – I couldn’t download any of the movies or the series that my sister wanted. You know what’s the only series I could download though? My favourite one, Family Guy! Haha, I have been the happiest soul since that day I found out I can download more episodes from my phone and I just transfer them to my laptop when I get home. Meanwhile my sister is still heartbroken about the fact that she discovered the app and it only benefits my brother and I!

Goodbye for now, I’ve got more episodes waiting to be watched.