50 things I did in the past 500 days:

There was a meme floating about the ether of the interwebs a little while ago called 50 in 500 – and it essentially challenged people to do 50 things in 500 days. I was going to do it, but like many other projects of mine, it fell by the wayside when something shiny distracted me.

However, I thought I’d get back in the saddle of Blogging by sharing with you 50 things that I did accomplish in the past 500 days, to give you an idea of some of the things that I have been up to in my hiatus.

1.     Travelled overseas for the first time in my life, to Japan for eight days with my boyfriend.

Fell in love with Japan. Did not want to leave.

2.     Earned a promotion at work, with a fantastic boss and team.

3.     Learned how to skin and gut rabbits.

4.     Got at least three new tattoos, one of which is matching with my best friend.

5.     Was involved in a seven-car collision which wrote-off my car.

6.     Paid off my Credit Card completely and chopped it into bits.

7.     Turned twenty-seven, and then twenty-eight.

8.     Got paralytically drunk at my 28^th birthday party, ate a hash brownie and promptly forgot about it, threw up all over myself, ruined my favourite pair of jeans, and had to be put to bed by my boyfriend and mother.

9.     Stole an unimpressive but practical pie dish from the work kitchens.

10.  Had not one but five Fish Pedicures.

11.  Bought a new car, as in brand new, like a fucking grown up. Mazda 2, Spirited Green.

12.  Watched 31 horror movies across the month of October 2013.

13.  Completed every quest I could find in Skyrim.

14.  Discovered a new band, Mariana’s Trench, and fell in love like the 14 year-old girl that I am.

15.  Travelled to Koh Samui, Thailand, with my best friend, for five nights. We had an amazing time, rode elephants, at street food, and generally swanned about in the lap of luxury like two decadent westerners.

16.  Got food poisoning on my last night in Thailand after eating at a five start Western restaurant. Go figure.

17.  Fretted about eating street food in Thailand, ate it anyway, but didn’t get food poisoning until after eating at a five-star Western restaurant.

18.  Was pulled over by the Police for speeding and very nearly lost my Provisional Licence.

19.  Went to Soundwave in Sydney where I got to see: The Offspring, Blink 182, Linkin Park, Paramore; but sadly not Garbage.

20.  Bought a FitBit Flex in an attempt to guilt myself into doing exercise for health/weightloss.

21.  Had my hair cut after the style of a celebrity (footballer Israel Falau).

22.  Bleached the shit out of my hair and looked terrible.

23.  Had a colossal health scare. Long story short – I am severely immune deficient, which was discovered during routine blood-work. Of course, the Doctor then wanted to test for HIV/AIDS, which I interpreted as “You have AIDS and are going to die.” This all transpired on Valentine’s Day 2013. I spent what was supposed to be a romantic evening with my boyfriend convinced I was dying, saying charming things like “I can feel it. I can feel myself dying.” Turns out I don’t have HIV/AIDS, just a fairly non-existent immune system. Good times.

24.  Ate my own weight in dumplings and Yum Cha.

25.  Adopted a new style aesthetic/personality, which I am slowly perfecting.

26.  Bailed on my Open Education Fashion Design course.

27.  Swapped it for Romance Writing 101.

28.  Bailed on that too.

29.  Booked tickets to Finland for June 2014 with my Sister and Best friend. We’ll be there for three weeks in total, which should be amazing.

30.  Got hooked on MTV’s Teen Wolf. Because I am that pathetic.

31.  Spent a lot of time tending to my garden, nurturing my budding green thumb and love of growing and cooking my own food.

32.  Discovered a restaurant in Canberra that I love so much, I wrote to the owners commending them on their amazing food and atmosphere. 86 in Braddon.

33.  Celebrated three years with my beautiful boyfriend.

34.  Mourned our beloved Canary Mr. B, who passed away on Boxing Day 2012.

35.  Adopted two new Canaries, Suica and Pasmo, named after Japanese rail mascots.

36.  Paid $25 to spend an hour with 40 cats at a Cat Cafe in Tokyo. Worth it.

37.  Had all of our 50+ trout die on me, while the boyfriend was overseas, and had to deal with freezing them so they wouldn’t stink, and then burying them in the garden. This also happened a second time recently, but thankfully only half of the trout died and the boyfriend was here to assist me.

38.  Went back to working at the porn store briefly, which was a mixed bag of awkwardness and hilarity.

39.  Had someone try to pick me up, in person, for the first time in my life. Sadly, it was a customer at the porn store, who was at least eight or nine years younger than I am. He was rather aggressive in his requesting my phone number too – it was alarming more than anything else.

40.  Quit working at the porn store for good – the extra pocket money was nice but the hours were a pain and it was really starting to cramp my style, both literally (I stopped dressing like I cared what I look like), and socially. Working Friday and Saturday nights will do that.

41.  Had the first birth in my group of University friends – the same afternoon as my car accident. Bouncing baby boy who turns one in just under two months – CRAZY!

42.  Smoked an entire cigar in honour of his birth, and then promptly collapsed on the ground and didn't move except to chug water for a solid forty minutes. It was pretty pathetic really.

43.  Attended the Centenary of Canberra festivities on Canberra Day, and was, frankly, a little underwhelmed. I love Canberra and I love living here, but to me the celebration of our city turning 100 felt a little contrived.

44.  Failed to see the controversial ‘Sky Whale’ anywhere in Canberra in person.

45.  Grew kilos of tomatoes which I then turned into passata with the assistance of a dear friend, before canning it ourselves in a genuine 1970's Vacola! (we ate the last jar only weeks ago!)

46.  Made my go-to instant snack, Macaroni and Cheese, from scratch. It was amazing and I died a little inside.

47.  Got given an amazing sequined hoodie from Slickitup.com by the boyfriend for our anniversary.

48.  Had my hair cut into a rather sever looking mowhawk and scared a few people at work :)

49.  Attended two beautiful weddings of dear friends. Sara and Yuji and then Lisa and Eric. Both were in North Sydney, not an area I have spent a lot of time in. Both were beautiful. Both made me feel really lucky to have such amazing friends and really honoured to have been invited. Thank you to both couples :)

50.  Decided that I did, in fact, miss maintaining a Fashion Blog. I resolved to fix the situation, and here we are, with Ink & Leathers version 2!

Xx