Hello 2018

Bonjour 2018!

It’s that time of the year again, where we welcome in fresh starts and new beginnings. 2018 is officially underway and I hope you are all as excited about it as I am.

First of all, I want to apologise for my year long hiatus (no surprise there really), as it literally has been one year since I last posted with “Hello 2017”.

There’s just something so exciting about the New Year and it’s about time I make some positive changes in my life – for real this time.

December was a heck of a month, with a lot going on, but there were also times when I would just sit and do nothing all day infront of the television. I went home around mid-December and we spent our time attending family parties, dinners, a few meet ups and of course, watching a lot of movies with my family. Christmas and New Year’s time is time to be spent with family and since I don’t see my parents often throughout the year, I really value the time I spend with them.

For NYE, we had our annual celebration involving eating a large amount of delicious home-cooked food and celebrating until the strike of midnight. This year we had families over and it was a lovely night. The desserts table was filled with a variety of sweets, including cakes my Father made. The food my Father also cooked were divine and we all kept returning for seconds and thirds.

For the ‘younger’ people in the house (aka not the parents), we played games and had a mini dance party – it was rather fun indeed. Despite the age differences, playing games always brings people together and that’s why I love playing them. I even whipped out the good ol’ ‘Game of Life’ board game that we briefly played before welcoming in the New Year, but the highlight was probably the ‘Heads Up’ game that got me crackin’ with laughter. New Year’s day was spent relaxing together as a family and watching movies and having snacks.

I feel truly blessed to have been able to spend Christmas and New Year’s time with family and friends. As I sit on the train whilst typing away on my laptop, I think about how 2017 was a year full of experiences that I will for sure remember in my olden years. I can’t wait to see what great things 2018 will bring. Let’s all have a great year!

Hello 2017

Bonjour 2017!

One week into 2017 and despite not the most perfect starts to the new Year, I am still feeling rather positive. I hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

Last year went by so quick and I can still remember writing my 2016 New Year post. Now that it's 2017 it feels like a fresh start. People say that you can start any time and not just the New Year. I get it and I do agree with that statement, however, sometimes you just need a little kick to get things going and the beginning of the year is a good opportunity to. Reflecting back on 2016, it was a great year. I did my exams and made it into the next year of university. My family and I went to Brussels and I have spent some really fun times with great people. I have experienced a number of things, from winning first place in a category with my crew at a dance competition to the simple moments that I describe like when everything is in slow motion and you look around you and feel very blessed.

2017 is underway and I'm looking forward to the great things to come this year. I'm determined to work harder in the things I do and appreciate the blessings I have.

For NYE, my family and I celebrated the New Year with a table spread as tradition. I actually set up the simple spread myself. My Father cooked up pancit and delicious pork belly, as well as a large jamón serrano that resulted me in standing next to it a lot during the night and the following day. It might not seem like a lot, but I was very full after helping myself to a few portions! Of course, as with every NYE celebration, we had our 12 fruits placed centrally on the table and our 12 hard boiled eggs tradition.

We ate good food and waited for the New Year countdown.
Cheers to a fantastic year ahead~

Hello 2016

Well Hello there 2016!

I apologize that this is (just) over a week due, but I had things going on as well as my usual laziness. It is also the end of the first 'official' week of year 2016, so I suppose it is quite fitting.

Looking back at 2015, as typical as it sounds, it was filled with moments that I loved and also filled with times that I hated. Things were not always easy for me last year, but I was also blessed with beautiful memories and more chances. I reflect and think how interesting life can be. You really can't expect what will happen. I now take those 'negatives', put them in the the past and using them to shape a positive future for myself. With that element aside, 2015 was actually also one of my funnest years! I absolutely loved the fun times. Those moments when you feel like you're in a movie scene and everything is in slow motion and you just look around, look at the people around you and think how great life is. It makes me smile. From dancing in the dark with just lights illuminating our faces, to the sun shining and the wind blowing like crazy whilst being on the back of a pick-up truck, and laughing until our stomach ached and ended up almost choking on our food.

Yes, indeed, I am one of those people who set resolutions for themselves, but I don't see anything completely wrong with them. It's true that you don't stick to all of them, but you get something out of trying and some actually work, right? One on my list is to be more positive. I realized that I used to be a much more positive person, but I've become someone full of complaints and someone who looks at the negative side. That's not me - I know it's not. Complaints aside, I want to try and focus at the positive things in life. I want to see more of the 'happiness'. Another one is to balance my time better and know my priorities. It's going to be hard, but I know I can do it. I've set myself projects and tasks that I want to achieve this year and I'll do my best.

I look forward to 2016 as being an awesome year. I'm going to work even harder on a number of things and I know it will be worth it. I'm excited! More memories, more achievements, more happiness.

Gros bisous,

Nich

So for our New Year's celebration, we kept with our usual of celebrating at home with family and invited friends. NYE was more chilled and it was quite pleasant like that. I could actually focus on the food and ate (sort of) comfortable for once. 

Food, check. Family and friends, check. 12 fruits set out, check. Then we waited for the countdown.

"White rabbit!" Of course, on the strike of midnight, we jumped up and down (some will know what I'm on about), shouted "Happy New Year" like crazy, and had our boiled egg each.

Blessed that I spent my time with my family again. 

So once again, here's to a great 2016!

Hello 2015

Why, Hello there 2015. 

I hope you'll be awesome.

Coucou tout le monde!

I hope you all had a wonderful time during Christmas and New Year. It was surely a time to really appreciate, being with friends and family. I know this post is more than a week due. I actually had planned this during the early hours of 1st January 2015, but things came up.

As our usual 'tradition', my family held a NYE party and we invited a small number of people to celebrate the night away: to welcome in the New Year. Actually, you can basically describe the night as a time when we stuff ourselves with food and desserts until midnight strikes! I had to revise a bit for (mock) exams(which I have recently just done) a few days beforehand, thus I felt  little panicky after Christmas. It was such a busy time for me personally, with studying to do and wanting to have 'chill time' with my parents. However, I was ready to welcome 2015!

I for sure had a NYE outfit, but we also planned for everyone to have Onesies. Something a little bit more chilled, which I love since sometimes you just need that little bit more of comfort, eh? I got ready in my main outfit and of course, the obligatory time period of pictures was first on our agenda once the majority had arrived. We sure do love taking family pictures and group pictures. In fact, I absolutely LOVE photos, since you are able to capture those special moments. When you see that one snap again, you catch a quick flashback and it's quite a lovely feeling indeed. Nowadays, it seems everyone is hooked in documenting their whole lives and I suppose I am one of them. Perhaps not every single detail, but I certainly love 'documenting' certain moments, items and scenes. I also have this sort of obsession (I'm not quite sure if that is too strong of a word to describe what I actually mean, but let's just go with that), where I date a lot of things. Even if it's just a little note, or work, I jot down the date.

After the main big chunk of pictures and as they say "take some photos before the lipstick and makeup goes", I sure was hungry. We waited for everyone to arrive, and then feasted on food that my Father cooked. Our guests brought odd things here and there, like drinks and dessert. It's hard eating 'properly' when you're dressed up, so as soon as I finished my mains, I changed into my Onesie. Ah, much better. More space, since the skirt I was wearing was not expandable and that is a problem when you eat a lot.

We also played games. Ooh Boy, I LOVE games! Everyone around me knows that I am such a 'big kid' at times. When I go to family events, my eyes light up when they include us in the games, and I also play with the kids at family house parties. Games are fun. The games we played on NYE were fun too! We sat everyone - cosy and snug - in the living room and began by playing the Earphones game with a few of us. I'm not even sure what the actual proper name for that game is, but it's the one where one person puts on headphones on LOUD music and they have to try and lip-read what the other person is saying. It's hilarious some of the random stuff that come out. The next game we played was Charades. We split everyone into two teams and kept it simple by narrowing the theme into the category Movies.

I set my alarm for 23:55, which gave us 5 minutes to 'prepare' ourselves for the countdown. We switched on the television and waited for the countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...WHITE RABBIT! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I didn't really take much pictures at all, since I was so busy snapchatting, playing games and eating, HaHa.

Resolutions for 2015? Yes, of course I have some. I'm aware that people don't really stick to them, but I'm hoping to stick to some of mine. It's good to have a positive outlook at the beginning of the year, so why not? 

Here's to 2015!

Gros bisous. 

Hello 2014

Hello everyone...Although I'm not sure how many or if any reads my posts at the moment, but hey-ho.
Bienvenue 2014! 
I know that this post is perhaps a little delayed by more than a week, but I didn't have the time to start making this properly.

Christmas 2013 for me was fantastic, I spent Christmas Eve having fun with my family and friends. Christmas Day with my family after going to Church, then having our Christmas dinner/'lunch'.

The traditional Christmas Turkey.

NYE Celebration Cake.

Simple yet delicious.
For New Year, we have a tradition whereby we host a small celebration, you know, with food and stuff. ^ ^

 It's also tradition to have 12 fruits feng shui on New Year's. Something for good luck. =) 

 One of our guests brought tacos. 

 Vegetarian?

Gotta have some Ice Tea. ;)

We wrote our wishes on a lantern and when it was the New Year, we set it off. However, it took a while for the lantern to get going. =') It just wouldn't light, then the lantern wouldn't fill (with CO2, if I may add *feeling sciencey*) which we realised that there were like two small wholes and a massive big one. -_- Eventually we managed to get it going-phew!
The light thing freakin' fell on the ground. =/

(Apologies for the really blurry photo.)

Then of course as what everyone else does, we turned on the television for the New Year's Countdown. 

As per usual for NYE celebrations, I didn't even sleep until very late-or should I say, early?

My previous post on success and looking towards improving yourself for the better was I guess fitting for something to reflect on, ready for 2014. If you haven't checked it out yet, check it out: 'Just Keep Swimming.'
(I got tired of watermarking all the photos -_-)

Outfit for the night. 

I've had so many things go wrong for me in 2013, as well as so many fun and absolutely awesomely-blessed moments. Thinking on the things I did wrong...Man, I need to change. My actions will have a lot more of effects this year. I'm sure some of you can relate.
We're ready for good changes. Let's do this thang. > <

Let's all have a great 2014!