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- We went into the city a lot.

- We had the cutest (and yummiest) mini burgers at Pop Burger!

- I finally got my ring resized at Tiffany’s and they did it in a day, good service!

- We got stuck in the snow for over an hour in NYBoy’s mustang.

- We decorated the best Christmas tree ever – and ditched the traditional angel topper with Bebek, Mr. Rabbit and the blue doll (childhood toys, guess which belongs to each person).

My favorite presents this year?
My Juicy Couture iphone cover, and my limited edition Barbie T3 hairdryer!

- Went to the beach after the snow!

- Made a trip down to Washington, DC to show Mumu the sights and museums. It was SO cold there, my favorite part was getting astronaut icecream at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum.

- Did a loooottt of shopping.

My favorite purchases?
True Religion skinnies, a new Dooney & Bourke purse (I was thinking of getting a Longchamp, until I found this, it’s the same material but with a cross-body strap, which I loovvve) and my wedding dress.

I have an Arabic final to sit next week and then on the 21st we’re getting on another plane and flying back home (MY home this time, not his!).

I’m really looking forward to spending time on the beach, eating very yummy food and seeing my friends who I haven’t seen since I was back in Summer 2008. Until then, it’s study, study, study.

Happy New Year everyone!

We went to the Bronx zoo!

I LOVE zoo’s. So far this summer we’ve been to the National Zoo in DC and Pittsburgh Zoo, we would have made Dallas Zoo if it wasn’t for the rain

The Bronx zoo is one of my favorite zoo’s so far, it’s huge! And the rainforest section made me feel like I was at home – because I am a little homesick.

I brought my camera with me, but being the very clever girl that I am, it wasn’t charged. I had it plugged in overnight before but the plug must not have been put into the wall socket properly, because the camera was dead.

So I tried to use NYBoy’s phone to take pictures, which worked fine for things that were relatively close to us, but for things like the lions that were all the way on the other side of the enclosure, they look like brown dots in my photos.

Sea lions

Frogs

Monkeys

Mouse House

African Trail

CAMELS!

Forest Section

Himalayan Trail

Reptiles & Amphibians

Madagascar!

We spent like four hours at the zoo, and then I got my “treat” – a Starbucks protein plate and shaken iced tea lemonade for the drive home.

When I got home there was a big candy basket waiting for me, from an unknown sender – which I later found out was NYBoy. He knows I love my candy!!!!

We went to dinner with his mom and stepdad at a French restaurant where I had escargot (mmmm), hazelnut encrusted salmon and creme brulee for dessert! The waiter’s sang happy birthday and put a candle in my creme brulee, which made me feel very loved!

More presents waiting when we got home! Apparently Magic (the dog) prepared them while we were at dinner – a Hannah Montana star-shaped cushion, a September beanie baby and a pop-up card with cats on it, because cats are my favorite.

And last but not least, I had ICE CREAM CAKE!!!! A birthday isn’t a birthday without cake

I’m so tired, but overall it’s been an AMAZING day, and I could not love NYBoy any more than I do right now for making my birthday great even though I was so bummed out about being so far from home in the beginning!

The past two weeks have been crazy!!!

I commute into the city every morning from RVC to Penn Station, which takes an hour each way, to be in at 10am – helping NYBoy with his internship, which he loves. I figure it’s better than sitting at home all day doing nothing, but boy is it tiring (and expensive!).

We’re reorganizing the stamp reference library, which is thousands of books – most of which are so old, they crumble as soon as you touch them. I end up inhaling and swallowing millions of tiny pieces of book every single day – the feeling of old book stuck in your throat is the most disgusting feeling ever, trust me.

Now that the month of Ramadan has started, fasting is the biggest hurdle of each work day. It’s such a challenge, and I’m really missing fasting at home where the sun sets at roughly 6-ish each day, it would be so much easier than not eating until 7.45pm here. I also miss the family gatherings! Not fair.

The weather in New York last week was incredibly messed up, I blame Hurricane Bill which was passing through somewhere over the ocean, we didn’t get crazy rainfall but check out the photos I took at 4pm in the afternoon.

The clouds were so scary, but it only drizzled and was a little more windy than usual.

Trains on either side of NYBoy at RVC station, very cool!

Now that we work pretty much full-time in the library on weekdays, we really try to make the most of our weekends. We watch movies together, lots of TV shows & do the occassional very fun outing!

We went to the M&M’s store at Times Square, where I got to pick the colors I liked (light blue & pink!) from the dispensers that went all the way up to the ceiling, and got to bring home a pound of M&M’s – most of which have now been eaten!

Next I want to go to the zoo. I have pictures from Pittsburgh Zoo to put up but still haven’t found a card reader, and truth be told we are very broke here, and it isn’t exactly high on my priority list of things to buy.

I’m trying to save up as much as possible for Fashion’s Night Out in NYC!!!

I’ve been trying to plan my itinerary through their website, but everything looks so good! I think I’ve added about 30 different places and they’re all scattered across Manhattan.

My top 5 places to go to will be:

- Lord & Taylor, I’m hoping to get my hands on a winning key.

- Vera Wang, to meet Vera herself.

- Magnolia Bakery, for the special Fashions Night Out cupcakes!

- Sephora (any one!) – I’m really tempted to hang around the Soho store where they’ll be picking two random people for Oscar Blandi makeovers, but what are the chances of getting that, I never win anything.

- Michael Kors – beg NYBoy for a new bag, and pick up the free tote?

There are going to be designers/models/celebrities everywhere on the night, which I got really excited about before, but I’d rather shop on the night than celebrity spot, so I’m planning my itinerary around the shopping and hopefully if I’m lucky I’ll bump into a few people worth noting on my way around!

Bedtime for me, early breakfast before another day of fasting at 3am-ish. I have frosted wheaties and strawberries. My mom always told us that wheat fills you up better than rice, and it’s much easier for me to prepare when I’m half asleep – so that’s my fasting month daily breakfast.

Happy Ramadan to everyone who reads this and is fasting!

So I’m sick.

(and not in the cool way, like DUDE you’re SICK!, but rather the snot-filled, puffy skin kind of sick.)

It started with a mild cold, and on the 8 hour drive down to Pittsburgh it became a full-blown cold and fever. So I’ve been sitting inside my hotel room at the Westin for fear of infecting anyone else!

We drove down here for a stamp convention, and I hate to stereotype but most of the stamp collectors are really old… and the simple cold to them would be a tragedy.

This city is strange, I get the feeling we might be on the wrong side of town because it is DEAD over here.

That’s the view outside the hotel room window.

I can’t say I mind sitting in the hotel room all day, NYBoy bought me the Sims 3 just for this trip.  We met two other young risers in the stamp world (wow, how dorky do I sound) and their respective girlfriends, who are sooo much more tolerant of stamp collecting than I am.

They even seem slightly involved?! I wonder if it’s something that rubs off gradually, maybe I already have a stamp enthusiast on the inside waiting to break free… but I doubt it.

They’re all very nice people, it’s definitely not true that everyone who collects stamps is by default a geek – it seems like a rather lucrative business venture?

Buuttt, I still have no interest in it.

I can listen to NYBoy talk about it because he gets so animated and excited but I don’t think I’ll ever find joy in picking out stamps for myself!

My job for the duration of the final day of the stamp convention is to finish my waffles and get better, so I can beg for a trip to the zoo tomorrow!

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I love this song. I think I heard Imogen Heap’s original on an episode of the O.C (I think that was this song) but I like this much better!

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I can’t believe how quickly the weekend has come and gone, and I can’t believe I’ve been in Italy almost 6 weeks!

I’ve confirmed my onward travel plans from here, which unfortunately do not involve going home to Brunei as previously planned. I’m flying to New York instead, for two months, including my birthday!

I haven’t had a birthday at home in a loonnggg time, but I can’t complain about spending it in New York with NYBoy instead. He always goes beyond spoiling me for any special occassion.

I had a skype interview with Rag & Bone in New York on Friday evening, and they’ll be confirming the internship dates (which would have included NY Fashion Week!) and details early next week. The same Friday evening it was finally confirmed that I won’t be able to afford the expedited J1 visa cost (1100 euros) and so won’t be going to work there despite having gotten the job offer.

Whaaaatt a letdown.

I am so disappointed, it would have been an amazing opportunity, and do I even have to mention again – NY FASHION WEEK?

I’m going to keep trying to find a cheaper J1 visa sponsor, that can expedite it, for slightly cheaper – but it isn’t likely. Having a really hard time letting this one go!

And to make my weekend that much worse. I think I’m coming down with something. My throat’s sore, my head hurts and I’m trying desperately to reverse my downward spiraling health by eating lots of fruit and veg, and drinking lots and lots of water and hot honey lemon tea.

The past week in brief:

I made a big black bow hair accessory to jazz up my work clothes (so people don’t notice I am seriously running out of things to wear here!)

I love my new dress from Urban Outfitters, but I need a pair of sheer tights to go under it because it is definitely not knee-length as described!

Steak for dinner was a much needed break from the cheap pasta I cook every night for dinner.

And so was this whole fish baked in salt, a recipe I found at NYMag.

Cracking the salt crust open was the best part because I got to whack it with a wooden spoon.

I found Annie Greenabelle’s stuff at Topshop Edinburgh a couple of months back and they are gorrrgeous.

Wore my ballerina dress for the first time today to work! And I LOVE IT. Plus all her stuff is organic and fairtrade, so my dress was a completely guilt-free purchase.

I want this next.

But I’m going to have to wait because someone just bought me theeeseee, to make up for an extra bad day. I was going nuts, it was such a horrible day but I guess every cloud has a silver lining, and mine comes in the form of Juicy Couture leggings and UO clothes.

From ShopBop.com

From UrbanOutfitters.co.uk

(on sale, steal!)

I’m sleepy. I had work then class again today. I’m so tired by the time I get to class that none of these foreign words seem to register, she must think I’m a bit of a retard. The only thing that repeats over and over in my head is sono stanca, which is probably the phrase which is most applicable to me at 8pm on a weekday night.

Rent needs to be paid tomorrow, so its living on the bare minimum for the next couple of weeks. Punishment for spending money on clothes, but it was a present from someone who thinks I deserve it, and it’s going to be so worth it when they arrive

Good night!

You can wear whatever you want, and still not get weird looks. I was going to put the ribbon in my hair, and figured I’d use it as a faux-tie instead

Today’s a sad day, I have to dress up to feel good.

RIP Michael Jackson, you were and will always be my favorite entertainer of all time, the times I got see you in concert live were probably the biggest moments of my childhood!

Transformers 2 has such mixed reviews. I thought it would be good because I LOVED the first one, but I’ve read reviews calling it a load of cr*p, and my big sister said it was really bad too. I don’t even know if it shows here in English, so I suppose I won’t know until the DVD comes out!

Yesterday was a public holiday i.e. DAY OFF WORK! Unfortunately for me, it was also the day I felt a little sick, so I stayed in all day and watched Lost on my laptop and played Fruit Juice Tycoon on my iPhone. I love that game, I finished it and restarted it all over again because it’s that good.

Today I actually have work, and I am ready so early. Makeup, hair and all.

This is the makeup I brought with me from St. Andrew’s, it’s only a little part of my actual stash… but flight weight limits

And these are my new toys!

- Mat Lumiere by Chanel, because I read really good reviews on it at MUA

- Highlighter by Sephora, which I do not love so much because it’s so glittery

I went to the MAC store to buy new sponges and he gave me a bunch for free, because I was in a couple of weeks ago to get gel eyeliner. Pretty neat!

I wear basically the same face to work everyday, the only thing I change up a little is the color of my eyeshadow. I have about six colors to choose from so even that doesn’t change much. So on weekends I try to do different things, like insanely bright lip color.

And sometimes I cut the makeup down by half and look like a kid again.

I love makeup. Watching makeup how-to’s on Youtube makes me SO GLAD that I’m a girl!

I think the best makeup tutorials I’ve seen online are by Kandee. Maybe it’s just me but I can’t take makeup tutorials seriously unless the person looks good – why would I take makeup advice from someone who I think even after all the makeup still looks pretty average?

Off to work, and then language class straight after. It’s almost July, so I think this is the last week that I have to work Friday’s. Which is good because after Thursday night class, I feel dead.

Going for a stroll along Ponte Vecchio, one of the oldest bridges in Italy!

Today I tried out the Sprinkles strawberry cupcake recipe! [click for recipe]

They were so fluffy, and a very light pink shade, very cute! I had to use Crisco in place of butter, because I didn’t have any in the fridge and I’m trying to save up for Italy, so this means cutting back on spending wherever possible!

Thankfully, I had a giant tub of Crisco in my cupboard from Thanksgiving when I had a couple of orders for pumpkin pie and apple pie… You can’t sell a pie and not make the crust yourself, it’s cheating!

I doubled the cake recipe, but used regular quantities for the frosting because I always find I have way too much frosting left over from baking? Hence the tiny swirl of frosting as opposed to my usual crazy mound of sugary cream.

The cake itself only had a VERY slight strawberry taste, but the frosting tasted like strawberry yoghurt with extra sugar! VERY yummy. Invited a few friends over for chicken & seafood fajita’s and nacho’s, and to test run the cupcakes, they were a hit. We even had a little drama at the end with people fighting over who got to take them home, always a good sign!

My exams are now over.

My final Arabic exam for this year went much better than I expected, it was my first three hour exam and I didn’t know what to expect! All my other exams so far at university have been two hours at most, because two hours is enough to write two essays. Our three hour Arabic exam involved an essay and 5 translation pieces with 5 short compositions to be written in Arabic.

I have the tiniest handwriting, so even though we were told 30-40 words in Arabic would be sufficient, when I had done that much it was only about three lines… which looked a bit pathetic. So I ended up writing double for each composition, just to make it look nice… and by the time I got to my essay, my hand was aching and my handwriting was barely legible.

But at least my exams are over! Now while NYBoy studies for his final exam on irregular warfare (what is that?!), I bake cake and quietly catalog his boxes of stamps according to their values.

Italy in about a week! YAY!