Merry Christmas everyone | New years resolutions.

Hello, readers! I'm going to keep this post short and sweet, as a) I'm not supposed to be on the computer and b) I need want to get back to my Christmas prezzies! I'm just typing you all out a massive MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you got wonderful gifts and enjoyed your Christmas dinner-I certainly did! I got some wonderful gifts for Christmas, which I'm really excited about using-An adult colouring book titled Secret Paris, two pairs of new shoes - silver gladiator sandals and black ballet flats-a beautiful new blue dress, and a few more lovely presents!

Because it's nearly 2016 (squuuueee!) I've also put together my new years resolutions. I know it's a little early, but I've already had my new years resolutions in my head since, like, July! In the previous years, I've always had a rule to keep it to three, mainly so that it'll be easier for me to try and follow through with them (and it makes it harder to put down 'give up chocolate'!). So, here they are!

1. Try and blog more often, and include more photographs in blog posts.
2. Try to make new friends next year at my high school, and try to keep them! (Often, in the past, I've been through lots of different friendship groups).
3. Make sure to stay on top of everything-Schoolwork, blog, life, friendships and everything else!

And, yeah! I will try and follow through with all of these, and I hope that I'll stick with them! Have a great new year and hopefully you've already had an amazing Christmas (that you all deserve for being super awesome)! Have fun!

El xx

Christmas Collab with Girl Abroad | Mince Pies!

Hello, readers! Today Alice from Girl Abroad is going to be guest posting here! I am massively excited, as this is the first collab or guest post I've done! Thanks to Alice for the post, and let's get this show on the road!

Hey everyone! It's Alice from Girl Abroad here. I'm very excited that today I will be doing a guest post on El's blog about Christmas food! When she suggested that we could write about Christmas food, I was over the moon - I love food AND Christmas, so it was the perfect combination. I've never done a post anything vaguely related to food either! Be sure to head over to my blog to check out her recipe for Black Forest Trifle - yum! Enjoy x

Mince Pies

Probably, if you're from outside of the UK, you haven't tried mince pies or maybe never heard of them! Correct me if I'm wrong - you're country may have their own version I'm yet to discover! Despite the name, mince pies are totally great for vegetarians! I think it goes something like that they used to contain minced meat, but they don't anymore. They're mini pies made out of melt in your mouth pastry, filled with sweet festive goodies, like caramelised orange peel, dried fruit and spices and is definitely very Christmassy!

Ingredients

- 225g cold butter, diced

- 350g plain flour

- 100g golden caster sugar

- 280g mincemeat

- 1 small egg

- Icing sugar to dust

1. To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour with your fingers.

2. Next, add to that, the caster sugar and a pinch of salt.

3. Make the pastry into a round ball, and then knead it briefly. You can now use the dough immediately, or chill for later.

4. Preheat your oven to 200C / Gas 6 / fan 180C. Prepare by lining 18 holes of a muffin tin (you'll probably need two muffin tins for 18 holes).

5. Press  a small, walnut sized ball of pastry into each hole of the tin, and spoon equal portions of mincemeat into each.

6. Then use the remaining pastry to make round "lids" with your hands.

7. Top the pies with the lids by gently pressing it down to seal. 

8. Beat 1 small egg, and brush it over the mince pies, later this will create a golden crust.

9. Bake for 20 minutes, leaving 5 minutes to cool before dusting with icing sugar.

10. Devour these scrumptious pies!

I hope you enjoyed my guest post on El's blog - and don't forget to check our her post on my blog!

Girl Abroad

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50 facts about me tag!

Howza, everyone! (Sorry about the Aussie slang, but I felt like saying something other than 'hello, everyone!") Today I'm going to be doing the Fifty Facts About Me tag. I'd like to thank Rosie for letting me steal the idea off her letting me use the idea... Anyway, let's get this show on the road!

1. I was born in Australia.
2. I have travelled a lot with my parents. A few of the cities that I've been to are London, Paris, Madrid, Bangkok, Broome, Darwin and Cork (Rosie, if you're reading this, it's every bit as good as it sounds!)
3. I have red hair that comes to my shoulders. I hate my hair but am planning to get a pixie cut over the holidays.
4. I am literally the first ever tanned redhead. Seriously, who's heard of a TANNED redhead?
5. My favourite flavours of ice cream is honeycomb, english toffee and apple sorbet.
6. My lucky number is 5.
7. I currently am listening to the rage top twenty. I think the song playing at the moment is called 'Love you till the day I die?'.  I wouldn't know-I never do know the names of songs unless it's my favourite singer.
8. Speaking of favourite singers, my favourite are: Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, KISS, Stevie Wonder, Jess Glynne and Sia. A very odd list indeed, hmmm?
9. I love reading. Literally. You can never drag me out of books.
10. My favourite books of all time are The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail, and The Flywheel by Erin Gough.
11. I love Christmas. But normally it doesn't feel like it should be Christmas so it kinda spoils the whole experience. Not this year, though!
12. I'm very insecure about myself. I don't tell my friends so they often jokingly tease me about my looks... It doesn't help.
13. I love to draw Zentangles... I prefer it to adult colouring books, although I like them both.
14. I have a younger brother called Christien, although everyone calls him Chriso.
15. I chose my first blog name, My Random Life, because I thought that this blog would end up being an online journal. However, I changed it to The Ramblings Of Moi because it suited my blog more-after all, this is me just rambling on!
16. I have never really had a favourite colour. I would change my mind every other day when I was younger, so now I just love every one.
17. I adore writing, and have tried many different things with it (COUGH *Nanowrimo* COUGH).
18. I love the shop Typo. It has the most gorgeous notebooks I've ever seen and IT'S JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!
19. My favourite school subject is English and Inquiry.
20. Once again, I don't have a favourite animal. I love them all, although I do like Hedgehogs.
21. I do have a favourite blog! Girl Abroad!
22. I LOVE playing soccer, and am continuing with it in high school.
23. I also like the sports cricket, softball and I don't mind netball.
24. My least favourite sports are basketball and swimming.
25. I have asthma, but have never had any major attacks.
26. My favourite movies are Amelie, (which I was named after!!!) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mrs Doubtfire.
27. My favourite Christmas movie is Miracle on 34th Street.
28. I love the smell of baking brownies.
29. I really like to cook, but I haven't cooked in a while because of sheer exhaustion.
30. I have just finished primary school! Woop!
31. I change my blog background quite often, because I don't like keeping the same background for too long. It just looks a bit boring, to me. So that is why every time you click on this blog you'll get a different background!
32. I am not really a minimalist-I own too many books for that!
33. #TeamPeeta.
34. #Fourtris4ever
35. I am finding it hard to come up with so many facts.
36. When I'm older, I want to be a writer, journalist or a human rights lawyer (I thank Atticus Finch for that one!)
37. I just found my lost Myki card. Weird.
38. A movie that my family watches every year is A Miracle on 34th Street, but this year we watched the original. SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE NEW ONE.
39. My favourite actor/ comedian is Robin Williams. Such a cool bloke.
40. I hate Summer. I might live right down the bottom of Australia, but believe me, the sun doesn't hold up for a second..
41. The high school I'll be attending is right next to the Botanic gardens, which means we get to go over there almost every day.
42. I like to read the Herald Sun. It's an Australian newspaper.
43. I nearly died when I was told that I wasn't allowed to go to the AC/DC concert.
44. I'm still recovering.
45. I hate maths. Literally, is there anything more boring?
46. I am writing this in bed.
47. I am currently reading the book Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver-I'm only two pages in though.
48. This is a REALLY HARD challenge, people!
49. Is it just me, or do Haliee Steinfeld and Vanessa Hutchins look alike?
50. My brothers old teacher is now teaching class 1D. Lol.

And there you have it! For my nominations, I nominate:

Euginia A-Genie in a book

Megan- Megans Mega Blog

Hope you enjoy doing it, girlies! And since I stole borrowed this idea, you guys can too, if you want to! Hope you have fun doing it!

El xx

Nanowrimo... How did it all end up?

El xx.

Well, to say the least, I didn't do 50,000 words. I didn't think even at the start that I was going to be able to complete it, if I'm honest. But I buried it under all the motivational quotes: "You're a brilliant author/Of course 30 days is enough time to write that much/Why are you even worried anyway?"

Of course, 50,000 words is a bit too much for a 12 year old. I don't know how I didn't realise that beforehand, but I'm now paying the ultimate price for that one because my friends are all teasing me about how I thought that it wasn't a lot. Trust my very bad maths skills to make me the laughing stock of the school.

But I am proud of how much I achieved-By the end of it all, I had 20,000 words! Even though I didn't hit the target, that's 20,000 words that I now have. As Jodi Picoult said, "you can edit a bad page, but you can't edit a blank one." Well, I've now got 57 pages (at the latest count; and I'm only halfway through) to edit. Booyeah!

I would like to thank you guys, though. Rosie, Hannah and Beth in particular. Your comments made me keep on going, and they inspired me. I might be a little biased, but I think I've got the best readers here at TROM. So I hope you lot feel happy tonight-After all, you all helped me to write 20,000 words!

El xx

I don't support kids doing this kinda thing, but this gif sums up how I feel perfectly!

NaNoWriMo Update...

So I'm doing NaNoWriMo. And I'm failing spectacularly.

Do you ever get that feeling that you know you should do something but feel like you're forced into it? Well, yeah. That's pretty much my entire life at the moment.

I don't know what to do. On some days, I'll write two thousand words. On other days, I'll write two hundred. It's incredibly difficult trying to juggle school and writing a novel. I was hoping that I'd get class time for it, but so far I haven't been given any. And I still have a life-Either I wasn't allowed to give up my after school activities and the ones that I was allowed to give up are my favourite. Go figure.

I guess I'm just realising that this is a lot harder than what I thought. If I'm going to be honest, I saw myself at the the start finishing my book on the first day, publishers fangirling over it, becoming the next J.K Rowling. But I have been pretty naive in the past-I've now realised that it's a lot harder than it looks to write a novel. I thought the words would flow, but they feel stilted and unessecary. And to top everything off, I've lost my USB with all my work on it. Talk about bad luck.

I guess I'm not cut out for writing a novel after all...

~El

Halloween!!!!

Hello, everybody! Are you getting excited for Halloween? I certainly am! Halloween is my favourite time of year. I love trying to guess who is dressed up as who and what sort of lollies I might get. It's a really happy time for me.

What are you going as for Halloween? I don't have definite plans yet, but I plan to go as Annabelle if it's hot, in my pink dress with black flowers and ballet flats. I would add my own personal touch with my favourite black vest. If it is cold. I'm going to go as a goth girl, with my black jeans and top, and once again my black vest! The only downside is that my hair is a startling shade of auburn, so I don't really think it's going to work for me. But my friend does have a black wig, so I'm going to steal borrow it for her ;-) 

Who knows? Maybe I can rock it as a redhead goth anyway!

Yeah.. Notsamuch with this one.

But yeah! Those are my ideas for Halloween. Me and my friends all plan to go trick or treating together. We normally have a blast getting all our lollies together and then going out for dinner later-It's our tradition. I also love looking out for particular people whilst we're out trick or treating, such as:

The man next door. He is the nicest guy-He'll often save us an entire bag of lollies. I always make sure me and my mates get over there to say hi to him.

The American people who go all out on Halloween. America takes their Halloween seriously, people. And these guys are no exception. People jumping out of bins, moving skeletons, fake machetes-you don't wanna mess with these guys.

The people who every year manage to forget to buy lollies so they give out cash instead: I'll sound incredibly greedy in this bit, but yeah. I love lollies and chocolates and eating so such sugar my teeth dissolve (Don't worry. they never do) but it doesn't hurt to have a few extra dollars to put in my orange hippo money tin, does it?

Overall, I'm really, really, REALLY excited for Halloween! Australia might be pathetic compared to America but I still have a blast with all my friends. And since this year Halloween falls on a Saturday, my friends and I are planning to have a Halloween party. It's going to be so much fun and I can't wait! What are you guys doing for Halloween? Post it in the comments below!

~El!

Why I won't be blogging for the next month....

Hello, everyone. You might be looking at my title and wondering what I'm on about. I actually know a bit more about it than you do of course, but I'm still actually in the dark about it. This is because I have pressed a single button to do something that could change my life forever; and I'm still pretty nervous about it!

Because you see, I've signed up to do NaNoWriMo in the month of November. I am going to try and write a 50,000 word novel in a month, and through NaNoWriMo I hope to get it published. This means that I will not be blogging at all this month; I'll barely be on the internet apart from their website.

I am nervous, of course. I could completely fail at this or I could write a masterpiece (highly doubt the last one.) But it's been a dream of mine for a long time to become a published author. Even if my books never did sell well, I wanted to be able to say that at least one person has found happiness in my books. Writing has never been for me being the next J.K. Rowling, although that would be pretty cool. Writing is about putting all of my crazy thoughts to paper and seeing what I can make them.

I hope that one day you will achieve your dream as well; that you will discover a passion deep inside of you, my lovely readers. But for now, I must say adieu to my blog. I have a scheduled post that will pop up at some point, which I hope you will enjoy. But otherwise, I am going to discover a world in which I have wanted to enter for so long...

~El

Thank You!

Hello, everyone! It is time again for another blog post. This time however, I am not posting my advice or a book review or a song breakdown. This blog post has one simple meaning-THANK YOU!

Okay, so I toyed with the of getting a blog for a long time, and I suppose I guess I still haven't found my feet in the bloggy world. I started off with my blog Wonderings Questions Poetry, but it was really bad. I actually undeleted it a while back to read my old posts, and I was cringing massively at just how bad it was. I can't believe how bad it was! God, I did some very stupid posts then.

Then My Random Life-now more commonly known as The Ramblings Of Moi-was born. At first I thought it was going to be an online diary at first, but that turned out not to be. I still have plans to create another blog for an online diary-and yes, I can hear all your facepalms-but this turned out to be something else.

But thank you. Thank you for the comments, the support, the bloggy friendships. Here for all of you is the virtual hug that you all deserve. Even if you guys had said this blog was crap, I'd still be happy because you guys have helped me out in massive ways.

                        THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy your virtual hug!

BOOK REVIEW: Lies We Tell Ourselves.

Title: Lies we tell ourselves
Author: Robin Talley
Genre: Historical fiction
Page count: 384
In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.
 Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.
 Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept separate but equal.
 Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.
 Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

Wow. Just... Wow. These were the first words I had after reading the first sentence of this book. While I'm an Australian and don't condone what happened to the African Americans at all, I find it interesting to read books about that period of time. This book does that topic a lot of justice.

Sarah Dunbar is an African American who is integrating to a white school for the first time in
American history. A smart student who is an amazing singer and hopes to go to uni, she is put into remedial classes, daily spat at and watches all her friends get tormented at the hands of the white kids. Linda Hairston is once again a smart kid, but has been taught all her life that segregation is the most important part of life. She strongly agrees with her father and can't bear the thought of having to put up with the black kids. But when they begin to work together on a school project, can they even begin to admit the feelings that they've developed for each other?

Now, I've said on an earlier post that I've read nearly 200 books this year. Out of all of them, this is by far the best book I've read this year. Robin Talley doesn't wriggle silently away from the nitty gritty-in fact, she dives headfirst into it. This is the first time I've read a book where the main characters are lesbian. And there better be some heart stopping author out there, because I will never be able to find a book that comes a fraction close as to how good this book is.

Both the main characters are interesting as well. Sarah is constantly trying to figure out why she likes girls so much, so she had very little self esteem. She was by far my favourite character in the book. Linda wasn't really that appealing to me, but it was so great to see her grow through the book. She still remained a bit racist by the end of the book, but she'd grown so much you really were rooting for her in the end. And the secondary characters were cool, my personal favourite being Judy.

Overall, if you're looking for a brand new favourite book, pick this up NOW. Soon you will be thanking me regally because I introduced you to this book (Jokes :-P) I give it five stars and a massive thumbs up.
~El

BOOK REVIEW: I am Juliet

I am Juliet

Everyone knows the story of Juliet Capulet and her love for Romeo. The star crossed lovers from the warring Capulet and Montague families of Verona whose love was doomed.
  But who was this girl Juliet?

Who am I? Only a daughter? A Capulet, wed to my fathers choice?
No! I am the girl who chose her destiny, whose love outlasts the sun.

                                       I am Juliet.
Page count: 190 pages.
Author: Jackie French.
Age range: 13 - 20 year olds.




Hi, guys! Once again I've turned my hand toward a new direction for my blog to go in. Right now it's book reviews, so please enjoy!

This is a retake on the classic we all know and love, Romeo and Juliet. And the blurb is very correct - You'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard of Shakespeare, let alone Romeo and Juliet. It's a classic that to a lot of people is timeless, and I have to agree. While I've never really thought of it as realistic, I just love how poetic and beautiful it is.

This takes a little twist on the R&J we all know of. Instead, we see the entire story through Juliet's eyes, and how she grew to love Romeo. I've never read the actual play, but experienced it while lying on the couch with my mum as she tells me the story. I never had any interest in actually reading the play, but when I found this I couldn't resist it. The story that I loved so much, in a easier to read version? Pull out the coffee and the sofa - I want it now!

It was just as I'd imagined it. Juliet was a strong, resourceful girl who I believe would be a major feminist now. She stood up to her parents, because she knew that she didn't want to marry the Earl of Paris. She took risks all so that she could be with her lover. Right at the start she was worried about herself - how she was just a spoiled girl with a bunch of maids and that she was just a shell for them to take care of. She couldn't have been more wrong. Instead, Juliet was a girl who chose her destiny. She loved Romeo passionately, and it was beautiful.

I am Juliet is a much simpler version of the adored play, and I love it. It shows that no matter how boring something original is, very good authors can take it and turn it into a masterpiece. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone

Liebster award.

Hi, everyone! Today as I was scrolling through my blog following list, I saw a post by Rosie from Rosie: Books, Writing, Art and Craft nominating me for the Liebster award. I was pretty excited when I saw it, as I am a massive fan of her brilliant blog. There are a few rules for this challenge, such as:

• Creating a post thanking the person who nominated you
•  Leaving  a link to their blog.
• Include a version of the Liebster sticker.
• Nominate ten blogs you feel deserve the award and leave a link to their blog.
• Answer the ten questions that are given and give ten more.
• Make a copy of the rules in your post.
  

Right, let's get cracking at the questions. 

1. What is your favourite name?
That's a toughie! I honestly have hundreds, but my top two are Cassandra and Kumara. They both sound so beautiful, and I like how exotic Kumara sounds.
2. Do you have any pets? If so what are their names?
No, but I've had an Army of imaginary pets. There was my white cat, Amina, and my turtle, Jade... If I keep going on I'll never get to the end of this post!
3. Which country or city are you dying to visit?
Well, to be honest, none really! I've done a lot of travelling with my parents and there is literally no country that I haven't visited. Going back to countries, now that's a different story! I'd love to go back to New York, and London, and Cork, and a truckload of others!
4. Worst book you've ever read?
Girl Online. I'm sorry, but it's true. Penny was extremely irritating, the whole thing was stuffed with cliches, Noah's "secret" was far too predictable and it was was filled with flaws. Worst book ever.
5. What colour and style is your school bag, or your daily bag?
Well, my school bag is pretty boring, so I'm not gonna go there. My daily bag is electric blue with red lining and has little dogs patterned all over it. It's very cute and I ah-dore it.
6. What is your favourite lolly?
I love love love love LOVE Mint Humbugs. They are delicious. I also like Turkish Delight.
7. What was the last movie you watched?
Ricki and The Flash. It was brilliant and I really liked it.
8. Can you speak another language?
I can speak Scottish, French, and German fluently. My dad is Scottish and my mum is French, and I learnt German off the Internet and through my friend Olivia.
9. What item of clothing in your wardrobe do you love the most?
My Halloween shirt. It's pink and it has a picture of a unicorn saying "This isn't a costume, I'm really a Unicorn!" I was supposed to keep it for Halloween but I have become addicted to it!
10. What would you like to do to make a difference in the world?
I'd like to become Australia's Prime Minister. I know a lot of kids say it, but I'd like to use the power to make some changes to some big problems in Australia.

And now for the nominees! Here are my nominees!
Cathy Cassidy: Dreamcatcher
The Life and Times of a Modern day Teenager
.Zarin Is Back!!!
Megansmegablog.blogspot.com.au
The Mile Long Bookshelf.
Rebekah @ wings made of words.
Blue Whatshername
h.r.j
Cat Gaming 999
Charlene Flash

And finally, here are my questions for the lot of you!
1. Why did you start blogging?
2. What is something you hate in books?
3. Can you eat doughnuts without getting jam all over your face?
4. Did you have an imaginary friend as a child?
5. What is your favourite meal?
6. What is a book that you felt had a great plot but could've been written better?
7. What is your favourite guilty habit? (because everyone has plenty!)
8. Who is your favourite blogger?
9. What is your favourite type of cake?
10. What do you dream about?

Once again, thanks for nominating me Rosie! I had a ball making this post and I hope you all enjoy it too.

Author Interview-Cathy Cassidy

Hi! Today I'm going to share an interview that I got with Cathy Cassidy. She is a brilliant author whom I just adore. Her books are meaningful and heartfelt, and my no. one favourite is the first book I read by her, Driftwood. I believe that she tackles a lot of issues that other authors do, but the difference is that you can actually relate to her books. Each character is three dimensional and I adore every single one of them!

I hope you enjoy this interview!

1.Hi, Cathy! What began your interest in writing?

I've always loved to create characters and stories in my head… writing them down was the logical next step! This has been a compulsion and a passion ever since I can remember.

2. What is your favourite book?

That someone else has written? At the moment, I;d say a fab YA book called The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Loved it. 

3. What is a snack you have on hand as you write?

I chain-drink herb tea and when the going gets tough I reach for the chocolate... 

4. Who is your favourite character out of your books?

Mouse, who first appears in Dizzy and then gets his own book and his own happy ending in the book Lucky Star. He is awesome! 

5. If you weren't an author, what profession would you be working in?

I've been a teen magazine journalist, an illustrator, an art teacher, an agony aunt and a waitress in my time. I'd happily do any of them again, except possibly be a waitress… I wasn't very good at that. I dropped a lot of food on a lot of people!

6. If you could time travel, which period of time would you go back to?

So many eras I would love to visit! I'd start with the New Stone Age and see how life was then… then hop to the Dark Ages… then 1066… then Victorian times… Edwardian… the 1920s… the WW2 era… and the 50s. And I was born in the 60s anyway, so I'd better stop there! 

7. Thanks Cathy!

You're welcome!