The Noise in Wonderland: January 2017

posted by The Noise in Wonderland . 1/31/17 .

Bali Travel Diary - Part 5

This is part five of my Bali travel diary, if you haven't read the others yet you can check them out here /1/2/3/4

I have to admit, we didn't do much with ourselves on day five of our trip, it was a lot of lounging and eating, so this post might be a bit of a short one.

Day five of our trip started with a relaxing morning enjoying the beauty of our villa. After a nice breakfast and spending the morning swimming, reading and generally lounging about, it wasn't until lunch time that we decided to head out. My friends had heard about this Mexican place called Motel Mexicola they wanted to try out, so we decided to head there.

Grabbing a taxi and pulling up out the front the Mexican place, we knew we were in the right spot. I don't think this place could have packed anymore colour into it if it tried, yet somehow it still looked super cool and not just a complete mess. I honestly cannot describe this place to you in detail, because frankly there were just to many for my eyes and brain to take in, and the ones I can think of, I just don't know where to start. There will be pictures down below though and I think they'll help you understand exactly what I mean. The whole vibe of the place was a mix of Mexican, vintage, hippie and rock 'n' roll... oh an a bit of Hawaiian.

Something I do remember when walking through the entrance was the huge wax mountain that greeted us. With candles smashed within it, on the wall above were pictures of music Gods like Hendrix; it felt almost shrine like. Heading around to right was the cashier and bar which opened up onto an outdoor dining area, with both undercover and open air sections. There was also an upstairs section where we decided to sit. Climbing the staircase was an experience in itself; a myriad of colours, neons, pictures of Jesus and hawaiian themes.

For food we all decided to grab ourselves what I believed was called the Banquet - a five course meal with either meat, fish or vegetarian options. I know five courses sounds like a lot, but the portions were small and manageable. I have to say my favourite thing was hands down the soft tacos. I could have just ordered a plate of them and I would have been more than happy. We somehow managed to spend a good few hours there before we eventually realised we should probably get a move on.

By this time it was later on in the afternoon and we didn't have much planned, so we decided to just start walking up the street back towards a big shopping complex called Seminyak Village, that we had past on our drive over.

As we walked along we stopped at various stalls and shops, often times heading inside places to simple beat the heat for a moment. As we approached the main shopping complex, we all stopped at Sisterfields Coffee just outside, with most of us grabbing a much needed iced coffee. Eventually getting inside the main mall, it was the first shopping area I had seen that trip which really resembled something you could find back home. It honestly just looked like a smaller version of a Westfield. We wandered around for a little bit checking out all the shops, but everything in the mall was basically your average Australian prices, and there was nothing there that I didn't feel like I couldn't get something similar at home. When we eventually decided to leave, we choose to walk just a little further down the road we were on to check out some of the other nearby shops before grabbing taxis back to our villa.

We eventually stopped in at a place called FERN, and I finally made my first purchase for the trip that wasn't food, drinks or transport. I got myself a cute little silver ring with an arrow design on it. The shop actually had so many amazing rings, and I'm looking forward to the day they open an online store so I can grab more. For the quality of them they were a really good price.

After we finished up there, we walked down a little further and found ourselves inside one of those infamous Bali DVD shops. I actually brought a bunch of DVDs when I had been in Bali previously. Back when Netflix wasn't a thing I'd brought a bunch of TV series and I'm always surprised by the quality of them, and the fact they actually work. Every disc in the store cost a dollar, and we were told there was a deal on that if you brought 10 discs either four of them were free, or you could get an extra four for free, something like that. One of my friends wanted to take advantage of it to grab her young nieces and nephews something, so as she spent time looking around the myriad of DVDs looking for something to choose, I eventually found myself sucked in to buying some. I do want to give props to the guys who ran this particular store (it was just down the road from Seminyak Village if you're ever in the area), because they were great at letting us know which DVDs weren't of the best quality and which were. Generally it was the movies that had really only just been released in the cinema that were supposedly bad quality. A couple of us ended up picking up the first season of WestWorld for only $2! I've since watched it all, and while it's not HD quality, it's still perfectly viewable and fine, and as a side note I absolutely loved the show! We eventually made our way out and decided to head back to the villa.

When we got back, the rest of the afternoon until dinner pretty much just consisted of swimming and lounging around. We decided for dinner we wanted to grab some food from the shops around the corner from us again, but most of us were feeling lazy after showering and feeling refreshed and comfortable on the lounge, so we decided to try basically the Bali version of UberEats called GO-JEK. The way it works is very similar to UberEats in that you find the stores you want food from, place your order, the app finds you a driver who comes to you first to grab the money and double check your order. They then go off, get the food and bring it back to you. Grabbing food from Wacko Burger and KZU again, we decided we all really wanted to check out WestWorld and so watched the first two episodes before deciding we were pooped and heading to bed.

Stayed tuned for Part 6 to find out about the amazing beach paradise we happened upon and how the first sickness of the trip began.

Bali Travel Diary - Part 5

posted by The Noise in Wonderland . 1/28/17 .

Make Me A Mermaid (ft GHD)

While long hair can cause you to overheat, constantly get tangled and be a beast to control, one of the best things about choosing to have long locks is the fun hairstyles you get to play around with. Truth be told I don’t tend to be very adventurous when it comes to my hair; it’s generally either straightened, a natural wavy mesh or tied up ready to hit the gym or because I’ve just had enough of it. When some new GHD products arrived in the mail recently though and I had some time to kill before a coffee date, I decided to change it up a bit. It’s nothing super extravagant because choosing to not bother much with my hair has left me lacking in the hair styling skills department, but I decided to try a bit of a fishtail half up-half down do.

After freshly washing my hair, I give it a light dry so it was still slightly damp and then began adding products before I completely dry it off. I have coloured blonde hair, so it’s important for me to keep a good hair care routine so my hair doesn’t start breaking off and dry up to a crisp. I started by adding the GHD Heat Protector Spray. I think no matter what kind of hair you have, colour treated or not, it’s always important to put a heat protector through your hair, especially if you’re planning on blow drying, straightening or curling. Heat isn’t a friend to any hair type, so help a brother out and keep it as protected as possible.

I then sprayed on a little of the GHD RootLift Spray. I don’t often use volumising products and when I do I use them sparingly because my hair is coloured treatment is naturally a litter drier than most, meaning my hair tends to hold a bit of volume on its own. However the hair right at my scalp can still look a little flat, so I applied just a couple of sprays right at the base.

The last step before continuing drying was to add in some of the GHD Advanced Split End Therapy. I’ve had bad experiences with split ends ruining my hair to the point it wouldn’t grow but instead kept getting shorter and shorter. Learning from that experience, I tend to keep on top of my split ends pretty well now, regularly giving my ends a little trim to remove any. However products like these help to keep any split ends at bay, and generally help to nourish the end of your hair, which tends to be driest and most damaged section. From there I finished blow drying my hair using the GHD Size 4 Ceramic Vented Radial Brush. The benefit of using a brush like this is that the ceramic holds heat for longer, making drying your hair quicker and easier. The round style of the brush can also help with increasing volume as you dry. After straightening my hair it was styling time.

As I’m going for a half up-half down look, the first thing to do is a grab a tail comb or something similar, I’m using the GHD Tail Comb. Use this to section off the top part of your hair and pull it into a small ponytail.

Then it’s time to tackle the fishtail braid. I figured me trying to explain how to create one in words would be to complicated, so instead I’ve grabbed a diagram from Pinterest which I used to help me remember how to do it, and I figured would be a much more straight forward explanation for you guys.

Taking out the hairband and holding on to the section of hair we just pulled together, begin creating a fishtail braid all the way down the length of the hair, securing at the end. To give the braid a bit more volume and for a bit of a messy, less put-together look, you can pull at the sections of the braid to loosen them, as well as run your hand from the bottom of the braid to the top a couple of times to make the hairs a little more messy. If however you like a clean cut look, you don’t have to do any of the above. To help keep those stray hairs from getting to out of control during the day, and to give the braid a little added strength, I sprayed on some of the GHD Curl Hold Spray. As the name suggests, it’s a hairspray type product that was created to keep curls in place, but just like hairspray, it’s a versatile product that you can use to help keep any sort of hair style in place. After giving the rest of your hair that isn’t the braid a quick brush over to bring it all together, you’re looking fierce and ready to go!

This look is quite simple, and once you get a hang of creating a fishtail braid can become quite a quick one to, yet the pattern of the braid and the half up look gives your style just a little more 'wow' factor to add some flair to your day.

Make Me A Mermaid (ft GHD)

posted by The Noise in Wonderland . 1/24/17 .

Dear January ('17)

Your end is nearly here, so I decided to sit down and do a little reflection on how my first month of 2017 has been.

Now, I hate to sound so bloody clique, but it seems the older I get the more this begins to ring true; man did you go quick.

I remember sitting down at one point and realising there was only two weeks until you were over, and now here we are, so close to starting February already. I still remember so vividly anticipating you back in 2016 and thinking about how I was going to change things up online and embrace life more. While I certainly stuck to my goals and changed up my online presence and the type of content I'm delivering, I sort of feel like I didn't achieve much during your time; I feel like you went to quick for me to figure out exactly what I needed to do to feel accomplished.

You're always a weird and confusing time of the year as it takes a while for people to get back to their regular routines and for society to just generally start functioning as it was again. Despite trying to focus on the little things I have to admit I'm not overly impressed with you, but I'm going to use this as hopefully a push for February, so when I sit down to write at the end of that month, hopefully I feel quite different to how I do know. There's also still a few goals I'm still yet to get off the ground, so hopefully February is the time when they take off.

I didn't get back into my fitness routine as quickly as I wanted, and this late start makes me feel like I haven't managed to achieve much in that area. I did manage to get around to incorporating more yoga into my life which was a big thing I wanted to do this new year, so I guess I just need to learn to appreciate the small things.

And I think that's problem. I think because nothing majorly life changing or extraordinary happened during your time, I think I haven't achieved anything, but maybe if I look closer at the litte things and appreciate them I'll realise I did manage to do something.

I feel like I was more social and generally got outdoors and to the beach more while you were here, which was another goal I had mentally commitment myself to, so I guess that's something as well. I made new friends and reignited old connections, and something inside me is telling me that these will bring some really positive outcomes in the months ahead.

There's little to no activity on the job front still, and I'm still in quite a confused mindset on exactly what next step I should take, and want to take, to keep pushing some sort of career forward. I'm hoping by the end of February the light is a little brighter in that corner.

Don't think that because I don't feel like I didn't achieve much that I'm just completely disappointed with you; I'm not. I guess at the end of the day I did manage to implement some of my personal goals, some a little more slowly than others, and now it's time to keep pushing with them so by the end of February I feel like I've really achieved something in those areas, and hopefully had something else grow in my life.

Dear January ('17)

posted by The Noise in Wonderland . 1/19/17 .

Bali Travel Diary - Part 4

This post marks part four in my Bali travel diary series if you haven't yet read any of the others, you can check them out here - #1 #2 #3

Today marked our last day in Ubud and our last hours at our amazing rainforest villa. Instead of sitting around the villa in sadness at having to leave, we decided to venture to the famous Yoga Barn to kickstart our morning.

Walking into the Yoga Barn complex, there's nothing else to say except it was stunning. Beautifully designed buildings woven seamlessly into the surrounding nature. After walking down a few steps and past a couple of other buildings and studios, we reached the main yoga complex.

Walking into the building, which is completely open at the front, we all left our shoes to one side, and paid for our class. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly which class we did (the timetable is jammed packed), but I do know it went for an hour and a half, which is the longest yoga class I've ever done, and seen. Walking further around the building we eventually walked into the doors of the yoga studio. It was quite a large room, with beautiful wooden floors and floor to ceiling glass along the back and down one side of the room. The other side housed a bunch of shelving which contained everything you needed for the class; mats, blocks, cushions and more.

The class went through all your usual yoga poses and techniques, but thanks to the intense humid, the length of the class, the length we held some of the poses and my general lack of yoga participation for an extended period of time, the sweat became real. Luckily it happened to most people in the room so I didn't feel so unfit and out of shape. While I'm not sure I would want to be doing yoga for that long all the time (I'll stick to my hour sessions thanks), I highly enjoyed the class and our instructor was so awesome and super helpful.

By the time the class was over, we only had about half an hour to get ourselves some breakfast, but the cafe/restaurant there had looked way to good to miss, so we swiftly made our way there and didn't dawdle in picking something to eat. As you can imagine, pretty much everything on the list was super healthy, which is exactly what you feel like after you've just started your morning with a serious yoga session, and everything my friends and I ordered looked and tasted amazing. Again I can't remember exactly what drink I ordered, though I do know it was one of the many smoothies on the menu, and it was downright delicious. For food a couple of us ordered what I'm pretty sure were called Pineapple Pancakes which came topped with mulberries and they are some of the best pancakes I have ever had in my life.

After finishing breakfast, it was a mad but sad rush back up to the main road to meet up with our driver. He took us back to our villa for one final time as we packed all our stuff, had our luggage loaded into the van and said goodbye to our wonderful staff, who were also super cute and asked to have a final photo with us all. We then gave our driver the address for our next villa in Seminyak and off we went.

It was about an hour drive from Ubud to Seminyak, and most of us dozed off at some point during the trip. Driving back to Seminyak, I recognised a lot more of the landscape from my previous trip, particularly the magnificent statutes they have standing tall and proud in the middle of their large roundabouts. We had a pretty much smooth trip there, the only hiccup came once we were on our street and we needed to find the right laneway that our villa was down. The street our villa was on was lined with these super long, narrow laneways. As you drove down them, along one side would be the entry to numerous villas. Once we eventually found the right laneway, our villa, called Villa Odyssey was located right down the end; great for being away from traffic and the busy street, not so good for having to walk up and back every time you wanted to go somewhere because it was pot luck whether a taxi driver would choose to drive down it or not. When our bus driver pulled up and unloaded our bags, we were greeted by an Indonesian lady who we quickly figured was one of the staff for this villa. After having to sadly say goodbye to our awesome driver, we opened the gorgeous wooden door and stepped into another paradise!

As soon as you walked in you were greeted by the amazing pool, with an undercover seating area directly to your left. There were two pool lounge chairs set up facing the water, as well a small lounge and chairs behind that. On the far end of the pool were glass doors to one of the four bedrooms. As we walked around to the main living area, we saw there was another set of glass doors to another bedroom (this bedroom was only accessible via these doors). Walking into the living area it was nothing short of amazing. Overall the place had a much more modern and trendy style to it compared to the more traditional layout of the villa we'd been in while staying in Ubud, but I'm glad we got the chance to experience both. The kitchen (not that we used it much except to store drinks) was super spacious. Down from that was the long dining table, perfect for our group, and beyond that was a living area with a TV, sound system, lounges, chairs, all the usual living room stuff. Again we appreciated all the different options we had for lounging, and I think it ended up being key to all of us having such a smooth trip. Having so much space to spread out meant we could all have moments off by ourselves to chill out and we weren't cramped into each other's personal bubbles 24/7; the result - an entire trip without a single fight, though it probably helped that, after knowing each other for five years, our group had never had a single major blowout, another reason I love and cherish these beautiful group of ladies so much.

Next was the bedrooms and bathrooms. Each bedroom had it's own bathroom, and both were massive. Walking into the bedroom that I was sharing with one of my friends, the first thing that hit you was the sweet, sweet cool air from the bedrooms air con. Along the right hand side was a desk and day bed where we dumped all our stuff. To the right was the queen bed in the middle of the back wall and over the far side was a mirrored wardrobe. Walking across the stone floor, decorated with a faux cow skin rug (which always creeps me out just a little bit) the front of the room was lined with glass sliding doors through which there was a small pebbled pathway and a row of tropical greenery. Over the left side of the room was the large wooden door that led to the bathroom; the most amazing, beautiful, downright awesome bathroom I have ever used. Walking in, to the left was a huge sink and a toilet. At the back of the bathroom was the bath where the roof was actually non existent. The entire perimeter of the bathroom was open to the heavens, which in a hot and humid climate like Bali was awesome. Right against the right hand side wall was the shower and a bamboo towel rack.

After walking around and dumping all our stuff in our rooms, we meet the owner of the villa who told us all about it and even gave us some sweet food recommendations, including a banging burger place that was just around the corner from where we were staying. With all the formalities out of the way, the first priority was to grab some lunch before jumping into the amazing pool. Seeing as our villa owner had recommended a place around the corner we decided to venture there for lunch. Walking down the strip, we saw there were numerous food shops, and while some of us choose to stop at a place called KZU. The rest of us made our way to the famous Wacko Burger we'd heard about.

After getting back to the villa, eating and chilling for a couple of hours, it was time to work out what to do with our night. We decided to head down to the beach which was just a couple of blocks from our villa for drinks and a light dinner. Once we cleaned ourselves we began to walk down to the beach, and I suddenly realised everything was looking very familiar. About five minutes into the walk I figured out why when I walked straight past the place I had actually stayed in five years previously. It was sort of crazy to walk past it and have all the memories and moments from that time flash back to me. That's when I realised we must have been walking to a beach that I had also gone to five years ago, at the same time of day to view the sunset. Once we reached the beach I was 100% sure I'd been there before; in particular a memory I have of being there five years before was the time when my friends and I were standing around on the beach, taking in the view, and having a man come up to us and try to sell us a full-on crossbow, which I still find so crazy and laugh about to this day. A quick side note for those who may not know; though it may be a hot and beautiful night and we're at a beach and you would think that high on the list would be to jump in the ocean and go for a swim, most beaches in Bali actually have lice in the water so you run the risk of being left feeling quite itchy, so it's best to avoid most beaches unless it's known that people swim there without a problem (a recommendation of which I'll have in an upcoming post).

We spent a couple of hours chilling out and just enjoying the night, and it was honestly probably one of my favourite nights despite the lack of anything really going on. Everyone and everything was just really relaxed, the weather was perfect, there was awesome music playing, I was surrounded by amazing people and I was finally giving myself a moment to let it sink in why we were here; that we'd managed to complete a five year degree, something that will forever be a major part of our lives, and we'd been able to do it together - it that moment I realised just how grateful and lucky I was to have found the friends that I had.

Eventually we paid our bill and made our way back to our villa. Once we got back, I believe we sat around for a little while longer just chatting about various things before eventually deciding we were all buggered and heading off to bed. Another nights sleep in paradise!

Keep your eyes peeled for part five of this series to read all about Mexican fiesta, first shopping trip and our experience with the Indonesian version of Uber Eats.

Amy Theodore

The Noise in Wonderland

Bali Travel Diary - Part 5

Bali Travel Diary - Part 5

Bali Travel Diary - Part 5

Bali Travel Diary - Part 5

Make Me A Mermaid (ft GHD)

Make Me A Mermaid (ft GHD)

Drone Photography - Newcastle NSW (Jan '17)

Drone Photography - Newcastle NSW (Jan '17)

Dear January ('17)

Dear January ('17)

Bali Travel Diary - Part 4

Bali Travel Diary - Part 4

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