Oh what a difference a year makes! 2018 has really flown by and a third of the year is done. Last year was quite an interesting year for me. 2017 was a year of discovery, a few ups and downs but 2018 has been amazing so far. January to April has been the best months so I wanted to collate my ‘highlights’ as I’ve done in the past.

January

January is my birthday month and I never have work on my birthday as it’s within the Christmas/New Year’s break. I had a really nice birthday this year. I started it with a great brunch with my sister and dinner with good friends. I realise I didn’t really take much photos during dinner especially with everyone but I did have an amazing cocktail at Bedford Soda & Liquor and got given beautiful flowers.

January was still pretty hot so many times were spent at the beach in my bikini or my favourite black dress from H&M.

The other things I got up to in January was watched the movie Lion for the first time at the outdoor cinema in Silo Park. The movie is beautiful and I highly recommend it. The cats also had their yearly checkup and they passed with a clean bill of health.

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February

January was slightly chill compared to Feb as I had a few events on towards the second half of the month.

It was my sister’s birthday so we went back to Nanam to celebrate. I also watched the movie Dunkirk for the first time at Silo Park and went back on the silks for an aerial yoga class plus tried out ballet barre and pole dance for the first time.

I also went out with some lovely ladies and as you can see from the photos above, we had a fun time. Haha

This month was when I also cut my hair short and it was the best decision ever. I realise I hate having long hair and my ideal haircut is a long bob. I don’t like my hair straight either but it was styled like that after my cut.

I also attended a beautiful wedding with my work team.

It was also a great start of blogging events for me. I was invited to the VIP launch of Krispy Kreme. I also went to a gin launch for Sundown Gin.

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March

So March started with a bang as I went to Auckland City Limits music festival. My first ever music festival and I had an amazing time.

I’m so glad I got to watch George Ezra live and he was one of my favourites. I can’t stop listening to his album. Peking Duk was also a highlight because we were raving. We danced non-stop and had a blast.

Then a few days after ACL, I was up the Auckland skytower in The Sugar Club for a beautiful breakfast by L’OR espresso. L’OR coffee capsules are actually really good. I’ve stopped buying Nespresso and other capsules because I prefer the L’OR ones.

I’ve done 3 posts about our day in Hamilton: Brunch at Two Birds Eatery, What we got up to and my Opshop haul.

Then I was invited to an exciting dinner at The Rydges hotel for Dans Le Noir? or dinner in the dark. I will have a separate post about my experience that night so keep your eye out next week. I couldn’t write about it straight away as we got asked not to until they change their menu.

I also went to the Huawei P20 launch at Huami and Fed Street Festival. Huami, the restaurant in Skycity is pretty good. We had such great food there at the launch.

Then I had the BEST afternoon with kittens! I did a stretch class with a bunch of cute kittens from 9LivesOrphanage. It was the best class I’ve ever done and I wish every class is like that. Most of the kitties were available for adoption and the tickets for the class all went to 9lives which is amazing because it’s run by volunteers.

One Thursday night, I went with Georgie from Georgieats to a Smith & Caughey’s workshop hosted by Antonia Prebble. Two editors from MissFQ were there to discuss some fashion/styling tips and Kiekie Stanners from MAC also did a makeup demo. It was a fun night and great goodie bag.

I also accompanied Georgie again to the Best Foods Comedy Gala opening night. It was great because I love watching comedy/stand up live and this show had 20 comedians. it was the opening of the NZ International Comedy Festival. Since I’m going away, I haven’t bought tickets for any shows this year but at least I got a glimpse of a bunch of comedians. I recommend you checking out the shows and watching a few.

The last ‘event’ I went to in April was brunchclub at Marua Road Cafe with the lovely bloggers above. I’ve written a separate post already so check that out.

I also watched Avengers: Infinity War and if you love Marvel movies or those kind of movies, then you have to watch it. I’m still a bit shook from it and I can’t believe we’ll have to wait another year for the next one! I have so many questions!

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Of course I also had amazing moments that I don’t have any photos of. I just thought I’d share the ones I have photographic evidence for me to look back on but the past few months have truly been amazing. It’s only been four months but outside my work life (which has been pretty stressful), I feel like I’ve been living my best life. I’ve continued from last year taking every opportunity given to me and keep saying yes to events and activities.

I think this time a year ago I was living by myself and slowly getting my life sorted post-breakup but a year on, I’m the best I’ve ever been. That moment of my life was a blessing in disguise because I wouldn’t be like this now.

Someone recently private messaged me on social media and I was so touched because she said looked up to me while she was going through a tough time (breakups are never easy but it gets better). She said I was positive despite the shitty situation I was in and I came out the other side a much stronger and independent woman. Her message made me teary! For someone to say that to me is really heartwarming.

My positivity and good moments I shared on social media wasn’t just a front. I was trying to live my life as best as I could. Yes, it wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies but if you choose to focus on the good, the good gets better. My happiness shows in photos as someone noted too. If I looked back on photos from 2+ years ago, I never smiled with my teeth showing and now as per the photos above, I’ve completely changed!

This post is mainly a recap of the four months into 2018. May just started and I’m about to have an exciting adventure overseas for my trip and I can’t wait! I’m super excited to what the rest of the year. If it’s anything like the starting months, then it’s going to be a amazing.

I know this is a long post but I hope you enjoyed my recap and thank you for reading.

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