Facing My Fears

One of my main resolutions for this year is to do more of what scares me. My anxiety gets the better of me far too often and then it restricts me from getting the most out of my life. This year I told myself I'm going to say yes more and I am going to do more of what scares me and it is one of the best decisions I have made!

My main thing is I get too comfortable with the same things so it means i'm too scared to leave that comfort zone. One of my fears was driving, I passed when I was 18 after 4 tests and a year and a half of lessons every week! As you can tell I wasn't a natural. I then went to university so didn't need to drive until I moved back home summer 2016. I got a promotion at my job, which meant I had to move stores to one that was 11 miles away, and I had to go on the motorway!! I drove with no music, clammy palms, shaking from the anxiety but now I love driving! I am currently on a course in Bedford which was an 103 mile journey and I did it with ease and actually enjoyed it. Doing that small step of taking a job further away from home has helped my anxieties of driving and also opened up so many doors as I can now drive to places that I probably just wouldn't have gone to before!

Another thing that scared me at the start of the year that I have already concurred is talking on the phone. I don't know why it scared me, surely it should be easier than talking to someone face-to-face as they can't actually see you but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't even order a take away! Now with my promotion I have to answer the phone a lot and I feel so much better for being able to do it. It makes my life a lot better as I can just ring people for help if I need it, and it saves the time as you don't have to text or email and it has made me confident as a person.

I suggest that everyone should do something that scares them everyday or even every week as it feels great and I feel like I have already accomplished so much this year and it's only Feb!!

Australia: Sydney VS Melbourne

Australia is so big it is hard to decide which parts to visit. We are here for 5 weeks and have already visited Melbourne and Sydney and I am currently in  Adelaide and going to Camberra in a few days. I found Sydney and Melbourne completely different places to visit and thought I would go through the comparisons especially if you don't know where you want to visit, but I would still suggest both if you have the time.

SYDNEY
Arriving in Sydney is so surreal, that is the Australia you see in films and on the TV that was the moment that I thought 'wow, we're actually in Australia!' Sydney is the perfect place for your first visit to the country as it is tourist central. If I were to compare it to London it would be Southbank. You have the iconic opera house which would be like the London eye- but much more impressive. We went to Toronga zoo which was amazing. Its $55 each and you get a ferry to the zoo then a cable cart up into the zoo. I am a big fan of animals and zoos but I do sometimes question how happy the animals are there. However I was most impressed by the amount of space each animal had and they were not squished into small cages. We even got to walk through a bit where there were kangaroos and an emu and they were just jumping around and we could go stroke the kangaroo and feed it which was something I really wanted to do when coming to Australia.

We also did the Aquarium which wasn't as impressive as it was quite the same as other Aquariums you can go too but it was raining that day so thought we would do an inside activity. It is very expensive in Sydney as you can expect and we even paid $30 for two pints of Peroni! I know! However we found after some research if you drink in happy hour it is only about $5 a pint and if you make your way through a few you can actually drink in happy hour from 4-8 in various bars. Overall I loved Sydney and it was just what I wanted as a tourist coming for the first time. I wouldn't go again as I feel I have done it now but would recommend to anyone coming for their first time.

MELBOURNE
Melbourne is a completely different ball game. Melbourne is a combination of Oxford/Regent street (LDN) and cool Brick lane ( EAST LDN). It is a shoppers paradise full of all types of shops including a Sephoria which I was very excited about, coming from the UK where we don't have one. If you want to go somewhere to shop this is where you go. The shopping centres go on forever you could shop all day and not go in the same shop twice.

It also has some cool trendy areas. We went to Fitzroy for breakfast one day which is definitely like east London. We went to 'Marios' which is the cutest little cafe where they make there own coffee and jams and wine. The man who served who i believe was the owner was so friendly and spoke to us about our trip suggested places to go and made us feel welcome. I had fried eggs, sourdough and haloumi and was one of the tastiest breakfasts I have ever had. Also the freshly made orange juice is a must! There is a tram that goes throughout Melbourne but we decided to walk everywhere as the weather is gorgeous and you can see so much more.

Our first hotel was right in the centre so that is when we did a lot of the shops. Our second apartment was near Southbank which is again like being a different city all together.  We walked across Southbank bridge which was decorated for the festive season with a giant mistletoe. We then walked all across the river stopping for a cheeky beer until we ended up at an outside beer garden which a DJ and various food stalls and even some people dressed as zebras having a dance. Such a cool place and you always find something completely different each corner you turn down. I loved Melbourne and would go again and would even like to live there as I don't think you could ever get bored of Melbourne.