Home sweet home

It's been quite a busy week, with lots of travelling. I flew back to England on Tuesday evening, for the Easter holidays and boy is it cold!! It's good to have the family all under one roof again :D

Lunch on the beach before I caught my flight home.

Its nice to have the open fire on.

 I was really excited to wake up to snow Saturday morning, I was hoping to see some before I go back to Malta. Sadly it didn't settle.

My gorgeous springer <3 

J :)

Tag: desert island

My friend Georgia from Becoming Hugo tagged me in this post, so here's the question:

If you ended up on a desert island, what 5 beauty products would you want with you and why? (We can assume that sun cream will be provided)

For me, being a vegetarian is a way of life not a diet, so all my choices are suitable for vegetarians and are not tested on animals (as stated on the companies websites and/ or the products packaging). This can restrict the cosmetics available, but these days - in England any way - it is a lot easier to find animal friendly products. At some point in the future I will do a post all about it :) Until then, here are my answers:

1. The Body Shop super volume mascara 01 - this was an easy choice, I never leave the house without it on.

2. Superdrug dry skin relief lotion - because I get really dry skin and Eczema so moisturiser is a must.

3. The Body Shop camomile eye make-up remover - if I'm going to be wearing mascara then i'll need an eye make-up remover!! And this is the best one I've tried by far.

4. The Body Shop tea tree skin clearing lotion - Its always good to use a facial moisturiser. I usually vary what I use depending on how my skin is and whether it's day or night. I usually use one with an SPF in the day, but as sun cream is already provided and I'm limited to five choices I'll go with this - even though I'm not a teenager anymore I still get loads of spots :s and this moisturiser helps with that a bit, it is also really good for sunburn!!

5. Barry M yellow nail paint 134 - the first four choices were fairly easy as I'm not the kind of girl who has loads of different cosmetics and make-up, however for this choice I was torn between nail varnish and eyeliner. In the end I went for this as I love wearing brightly coloured nail varnishes. I chose this shade because it looks great with a tan and feels very summery.

So there's my five choices!! What would be your choices?  Does anyone else stick to vegetarian cosmetics? Feel free to comment your answers or the link to your blog if you do a post about it - I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

The people I'd like to tag are Being Erica - a lifestyle blog with lots of cute outfits, Meg from Bow ties are cool - you know a blog is great when it gets its name from Doctor Who!! and Harry - a fellow English girl in Malta at Malta: Moving On, Up + Away.

J :)

My week in pictures

Monday 4th  - Went for tea and cake in Mdina, after work at the dog shelter. The cakes at Fontanella  are well worth the  long bus journey!!

Tuesday 5th - Had uni in the afternoon/ evening.

Wednesday 6th - Ducks at the bus stop on the way to uni!! Then we had some friends round to make pizza and watch films, then went out for sushi in the evening. I had Vegetarian pumpkin sushi, vegetable dumplings (really yummy) and green tea.

Thursday 7th - Went to uni in the morning then came back for lunch. Our bus didn't turn up in the afternoon so we didn't make it into uni but we made a start on our coursework instead.

Friday 8th - Went to visit some friends in Gozo, and went to the Piano Lounge in the evening.

Saturday 9th - Ferry back from Gozo.

Sunday 10th - Sunbathing on our balcony. It was election day and the Maltese were very passionate about it - all day people went past in cars, playing music and cheering. In the evening one of my housemates and I decided to check out what was going on, and we ended up at an amazing street party.

So that was my week in pictures!! What did you do this week? Were there any special events by you?

J :)

Mum comes to visit!!

Last weekend my mum flew over from rainy England for a Costa and some sun (and to see me). Living so far away makes me really appreciate my family so it was nice to spend some quality time with my mum.

First stop was a Costa at the airport for lunch and then back to my apartment, where I live with my three housemates. I then made the mistake of going into Zara - whenever I go into a clothes shop with my mum I end up spending lots of money - I brought two tops and a cute jumper with whales on. Time for a Millies cookies!!

On the Saturday we got the ferry over to Valletta and spent the day there.

On Sunday we had a picnic at the beach. I made a pasta salad for us to eat but I forgot the forks so we had to eat it with our hands!!

J :)

Puppies at the dog shelter

Sorry my post is a bit late this week, my mum came to visit so I was busy showing her around Malta (I'll put a post up about it over the weekend).


My housemate and I volunteer at a dog shelter on Monday mornings and this week there were two puppies there!!

They were soooo cute and playful. It was definitely a two person job to clean out their kennel, as one person had to keep them occupied so the other could clean.

When I'm away from home I miss my dog a lot. Visiting the shelter really helps, especially when I get lots of hugs.

  

The beautiful view of Marsaxlokk, on the walk to the shelter. In the Maltese language, 'x' is pronounced as 'sh' so it's pronounced 'Marsa-shlock'. Its a really pretty fishing village.







J :)

Carnival weekend

The week running up to pancake day in Malta and Gozo is one massive party. I didn't realise how good these events were until I went to see them for myself. The floats were big, the costumes were bright and the atmosphere was amazing. The perfect way to celebrate the end of exams woop woop!!

Last Saturday I got the ferry over to Gozo for the first time; it is very different to Malta as it's more rural, whereas Malta is very built up. In the  afternoon/ evening I went to a dance show that was put on by classes from different schools. Each had a different theme such as seasons, films/ Disney and Native Americans. All the kids did really well; the younger kids were cute in their flower costumes and the older kids put on a funny performance based around the London Olympics.

Dance show in Gozo

Then it was time to get ready for the street party!! This was very much for older teens/ people in their twenties. I had never been to anything like this before; floats were going down the road, everyone was dressed up (some more controversial than others) and the bars were outside.

Monday afternoon I was waiting for the bus back home, after going to Marsaxlokk, with my friend when we heard music; we went to check it out and managed see the parade in Floriana (next to Valletta). These were stunning!! Massive florescent coloured floats were travelling around blasting music with people in elaborate costumes dancing on them!!

Parade in Floriana

All in all in was a great experience and I would highly recommend going if you get the chance - Malta certainly know how to celebrate.

We started our semester two modules at uni on pancake day and didnt get home till late (lectures here can be any time between 8am and 8pm). We made pancakes before we went and heated them up when we got back, then played a game of rummy-cub. Perfect end to a good weekend.

J :)

Year abroad in Malta

I'm living in Malta!!

If someone had told me a year ago that I'd be living abroad I wouldn't have believed them.

It was a really spur of the moment decision to come out here. I was sitting in a revision lecture last march when we were told there were still some spaces left for a study year abroad in Malta. Me and the three friends I was with just looked at each other, this sounded like such a good idea. After the lecture we spoke to the guy in charge and he said that the places were ours if we wanted them. So in under two hours we had decided to move abroad for a year! This is something I never imagined myself doing, and it seemed  really out of my comfort zone, but with my friends by my side I couldn't wait to embark on this adventure. 

Less than six months later we moved to this beautiful sunny island and have loved every minute of it so far (apart from the coursework and exams but then that is the reason we're out here, so can't complain too much).

After living out here for just over four months we have grown to love it very much, I will definitely be sad to leave at the end and will come back to visit as often as I can. 

Valletta, Malta's capital city.

J :)