Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love you, Tomorrow

There is something so beautiful in everyday, its a new opportunity to better yourself, to better the life you live. It's like we've been given a gift to start afresh everyday

You can choose to be happier
You can choose to be more productive
You can choose to eat healthier
You can choose to sleep earlier
You can choose to smile to 5 strangers
You can choose to paint

You can choose to be punctual (which is one thing I cannot understand about people who are consistently late) 
You can choose to be a better version of yourself

The possibilities are endless!!
Recently, I found myself being bitter about the choices I have made and stressing out about things that have happened in the past and that I have no control over because it had evidently already happened. But what you can control, is what happens tomorrow! and so why stress over something that you cannot control? That is a major note to self and should be for many others as well!

So the main message is to: Embrace tomorrow as it is a new day and a new chance to love yourself more by being the best version of yourself ! :)

This Maca Nana Bowl from Hula's Juice Bar made me so happy 

It was a blend of frozen bananas and maca powder, topped with granola and berries and a nut butter that I could not identify. But it was all too delicious 

These flowers made me so happy too. If I'm not wrong, they are cherry blossoms? Which I thought were a Japanese flower but I guess not. But they are sooooo pretty :')  

Something else that makes me happy is that the sun sets at only 8pm because Daylight Savings have caused clocks to turn forward for an hour! It still feels rather odd when I go to dinner at 6pm and it's still full on bright and sunny but there's no way I'm complaining about that! 

Is this the real life? Is it just fantasy?

The weather was too great not to be outside so after coming back from school at 4:50pm, I dropped my bag and went ' Right, I'm going up Arthur's seat now regardless of whether anyone would want to go up with me' (Beverly went up with me though so YAY)

I love how you can see the layers of hills in different shades

The loch (lake) next to Arthur's seat

There were so many others who were just sitting here - some with friends, some alone, some had brought up food and had a little picnic, some just staring into the distance whilst being plugged in. It was amazing to see how youth here are so carefree and spontaneous and it was a pleasure of mine to witness it, the atmosphere of everyone just chilling and appreciating nature was incredible

It looked as if they were walking off the cliff 

This has got to be one of the most spontaneous and best experiences I've had ever. I can't explain how beautiful it was in words but I am pretty sure the pictures did a little bit of justice. There was one point in time where we were walking up the hill with no one else in sight, it was just us walking towards the sun setting and not being able to see beyond the hill - just like in the movies! It felt so unreal, like I was in a dream, and I can't stop thinking how fortunate I am really for being able to witness something so amazing and to also make the spontaneous decision to just go up Arthur's seat whenever I want to. 

The world is such a beautiful place 

Little happy moments

1. Went to Mary's Milk Bar with Lucie and Niamh

I got a lychee sorbet and they both got a chocolate ice cream milk shake! I also bought HUGE strawberries and some dates from a very cheerful farmer who set up his stall of home-grown vegetables and fruits in the Grassmarket 

2. Went on a run round Arthur's seat and I was in awe of the amazing scenery and also shocked at how I have been missing out on this crazy beautiful running route 

I also figured out the painful way not to underestimate gentle inclines because running uphill for long distances is really not fun 

3. Didn't manage to steal fruit form the JMCC/settle lunch so I had to go to the uni shop to buy lunch but even though this was not worth my £3, it was still delicious and refreshing

4. Immediately after watching Center Stage (my fav dance movie of all time), Lucie got a call from her sister about being able to see the Northern Lights from Arthur's seat, and Lucie and I ran out of my room immediately at 11pm at night and rushed up Arthur's seat. We weren't the only crazy ones up there, many others had join our pursuit to witnessing one of nature's greatest wonders! If only we stayed for an hour longer, we would have been able to witness it, but our freezing fingers told us it was time to get back to the warmth and so we climbed down the hill at 12:20am and headed back. However, we had a really deep chat about life sitting on the peak of the hill, whilst overlooking the city lights in Edinburgh and looking up into the night sky littered with burning balls of flames that have existed for millions and millions of years before us and are probably 10 times larger than the Earth (also known as these amazing creations called stars) - and that was an amazing experience in itself. Nights like this remind me of how lucky I am to get to have these crazy experiences. Climbing up a hill in the middle of the night hoping to see the Northern Lights?? Boy am I blessed

5. Had a really impromptu FaceTime call with the 2 most adorable roomies ever who I'm so grateful to be able to call them my friends! Thank you Bincs and Rachel for the call that lasted for 2 hours - I do treasure every minute of it!! <3

6. Had to help out at a different school for this week's Wildlife Club volunteering and even though I was a little anxious and nervous about having to meet new kids and whether they'll like me, all went really well and I got to explore a new environment in Edinburgh called Corstophine Woods and it was beautiful :') For this week's activity, we built bug hotels 

7. Picked this flower up from the ground on the way to school and I cannot wait for all the trees to be full of these flowers when spring is in full force! 

Full of Gratitude

For the past few days, weeks even, I just couldn't stop thinking about how blessed I am to be in the position that I am in right now. My parents are the best people in the world who have worked so hard to let their children live such fortunate lives and to pick their choice of university with no restrictions. How lucky am I?? There are so many others out there who don't even get to go to primary school let alone university, or those that don't even have a home or a family? I am really so so lucky and grateful for my parents. 

When asking them about travel plans, I am not even asking permission anymore, I'm just telling them where I want to go with their reply almost always being a yes. 

"Mom, can I go down to London during Easter just for a week?" "Yeah sure!"

"Mom, can I go visit Nadira in Amsterdam for her graduation in May?" " Of course!"

and then mom just casually asks if I want to go to Hong Kong in April? What even is this!! (of course I declined because that's just ridiculous and mom is just being too nice) Traveling is a luxury for others and here I am deciding which city I can want to visit or can fit in given the time period of my holiday. How many are blessed enough to do that?

Sometimes I still can't believe that I'm studying overseas and will be here for another 3 years. And on the other hand, my 2 best friends just met up in LA - It's just crazy how fortunate we all are! Of course I could not help but feel a wave of jealousy as I watched snapchats of them together but at the same time, I was so incredibly happy and excited for them and I don't think I'd be able to handle it if we all manage to meet somewhere in the UK in the future!

I hung out with Anna yesterday and she was telling me the same thing about how we all really have to keep reminding ourselves of how lucky we are to be here right now. She told me that she feels guilty sometimes because she lives such a fortunate life when there are millions out there who don't even have their basic needs fulfilled. But I told her, there is no need to feel guilty and one should not beat themselves up just because we are more lucky than others, we were born into this lifestyle and we just have to remember to give back to society and help others as much as we can, given the privilege that we have.

My mother is my superhero not just because of every amazing thing that she has done for me in my 19 years of existence, but she cares beyond the family and wishes to better the lives of those who are less fortunate as well. She is a strong believer that education is the way out of many of the world's problems and I support her belief 100%. For this, she has opened 2 Montessori schools (it is similar to kindergarten just with a different educational approach - e.g. more hands-on, activity based learning and a mixed age classroom) in Bali, not to serve the overseas expatriates but the locals. It does not even bother her that she may not start profiting from this business for another 3-4 years as she has kept the school fees very low, because the aim of this is not the money, it's the chance for these kids to better their lives by getting an education and to not be restricted in achieving their life aspirations. I am so proud of my mother and I should definitely tell her that more. 

This wave of gratitude has given me a new perspective on life and I will try my absolute best not to take this life I have for granted! For the lovely people reading this, go tell your parents how grateful you are for them and that you love them, it will put a smile of their faces! 

xx Have a great Sunday xx

Love you Mum and Dad <3 

Brighton

Stop 3: Brighton!!

(little bummed out that I didn't see Zoella or Alfie... ahahaha but its ok, we had close encounters)

We arrived here at the late afternoon and settled into YHA Brighton. They must have overbooked or messed up some logistics but instead of staying in a 9 bed room with shared bathrooms, we had a room to ourselves with 2 double-decker beds and our own bathroom! The bathroom could really pass of as one that would be found in a hotel, not kidding

Anyway, we headed straight to the Brighton Pier which was a 5 minute walk from the hostel 

The pier was a bit of a let down and we felt it was a little hyped up. Of course it did not help that it was really gloomy and cold with the sky getting dark, but still on a whole it wasn't that exciting! (Maybe cos we did not go on any of the rides or play in the arcade)

After the pier, we headed for dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Pompoko!! 

I recommend EVERYONE to come here!! The food was absolutely delicious, cheap and came within 10 minutes of ordering! I had a pumpkin katsu for just £4.90 and I had a side of vegetable rolls for £2.50 - it was comparable to Japanese food in Singapore! 

The staff were all Japanese as well - a sign that it was a good, authentic Japanese place, and it was packed with people

The next day was a day of adventure! We decided to head up to the Seven sisters cliff

Oh look - pretty!! But if you turn your attention to the muddy path on the left, that was what we walked in - and worse, for a good 2 hours to get cliff - no wait, THE WRONG SIDE OF THE CLIFF

Picture this: Me in my coat and a nice green scarf, carrying a handbag, wearing nice shoes my sister got me from TopShop, in the middle of endless fields of grasslands, trudging through miles and miles of mud and grass and having to shuffle on the ground because the mud was so slippery. The pathway at the start of the trail read ' Public Footpath ' and I was thinking " Oh that's nice, there's a paved pathway for us to walk on " but no I was completely wrong. Anyway, I must say of the 3 of us, I came out of that trail being the cleanest because I didn't manage to slip and fall into the mud but both Tessa and Beverly had :( But the mud was so deep at one point where my whole foot just sank into the mud and it covered my ankles - no not fun. Moving on to the point where we ended up on the wrong side of the cliff, the whole time we were walking on the right side of the river and we did see people walking on the opposite bank of the river, thinking that we could cross over to that side when we got out of the trail. But little did we know, that there was no way of crossing the river to get to the cliff unless we waited for the tide to subside at 12:30pm and have a 50% chance of making it. 

So we waited for an hour and a half in the cold, and tried our luck crossing the river. It did not look too promising because even though the tide had subsided, there was still a 5m gap of the river that we had to walk across and the current was just too strong. We tried throwing rocks into the water to test how deep it was and the sound of the rock plonking into the water was not comforting. So we then decided to scrape the whole idea of walking up the cliff and the other areas that we wanted to visit that was on the opposite side of the river :( It was really 'so close yet so far' because the only thing that was separating us from getting to the other side of the river after that tough 2 hour journey was 5m of water!

But it was a blessing in disguise because if we weren't on the other side of the river, we would not have been able to see the whole Seven Sister cliff like this :') 

(we literally just needed to cross this stretch of water in the picture)

Smiling through the pain because it was freezing plus the fact that our feet has been completely submerged in the cold river water when we tried to cross :(

But look at this view!! :') We had lunch sitting on a bench on another cliff facing this beauty

We then headed back on a much cleaner and drier route and got a bus back to the city

It was so bright and sunny and we decided to head to the pier again just to get more pictures! It was much more lively this time because of the great weather 

We then headed to the Laines to walk around the nice shops and numerous cafes there

I got an almond milk drink from a juice place called 42 juice and it was delicious! 

Time for the close encounter story: When I went back to the hostel that night and was scrolling through instagram, Alfie Deyes had came to this same juice place and got a coffee and also went to the pier?!? I almost died. We could have met :( OH WELLS

After the Laines, we headed back to the pier wanting to see the beach huts after getting confused because the famous Brighton beach huts were actually in Australia and not Brighton... so then we went for dinner at Pompoko again :) and I ate the same thing!

The next morning, we went for breakfast when I got this yummy bowl of porridge, and then went to the Royal Pavillion! It was the former royal residence for King George IV and part of the Pavillion was influenced by Chinese designs which was cool 

After the pavillion, we just walked around and went shopping for a bit where I got a beanie and Beverly and Tessa bought shoes from Primark because they washed the mud off their track shoes the night before and they were still wet, then went to the train station and bid goodbye to Brighton and marked the end of our trip :( 

I had such a great time traveling to these 3 cities with such great company! The many times we got lost and ended up somewhere unintended turned out to be blessings in disguise and just made the adventure even more adventurous :') I'm so glad we were all easy going and could easily agree on places to visit and to eat and no one complained during the numerous times we got lost and having to walk such long distances to get to the places we wanted to visit. Just chilling in the hostel after dinner and talking whilst sitting on our beds and sleeping by 11pm every night is something I miss dearly! 

I am seriously so lucky to be here and I need to remind myself more not to take this chapter in my life for granted