This is a VERY LONG POST – well of course, it’s a whole YEAR painfully compressed into 50 or so photos. Here are some highlights of my 2013.. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I had fun reminiscing 😉

If you’re not using your mobile, PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS SONG as you go through the post!
JUST DO IT

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It snowed in January and London was beautiful.



And when it snows, I can never behave myself.



I also kidnapped a pedestrian signboard (it wasn’t even snowing).

 

I went to Venice with the funnest Venetian I know – the only one with whom I would sit on a bench at 5am, when it’s 2 degrees, drinking champagne from a bottle.



I celebrated La Befana on Lido island, an annual Italian tradition.



We went kite-running in Richmond.



The Chinese New Year arrived – and so did a 14-course meal.



I switched from skiing to snowboarding, and experienced my first ski festival (Snowboxx) with one of my best friends.



I finally got to wear my retro ski jacket.



I went to Porto for the second time, with three of my best girlfriends. It was crazy fun.



We said goodbye to one of our gang – Jeremy, who was moving to Sydney for sun and surf.

There were a lot of parties.



I started rollerblading again.



I saw The Courteeners in concert.



It started to get warmer, and the days longer.



My best friend from home, Joyce, came to play!



I decided to pick up skateboarding.



I was happiest in the sunshine.



I started practising my ukulele again.



I attended my first ever travel blogging conference in Rotterdam.
(With Goliath)



I went surfing in Scheveningen – look at all that spume!
It was very cold and a little disgusting. 
But I made a great new friend.



My luggage and passport were stolen in Rotterdam. 

But this woman rescued me and I love her.



I won a trip to Toronto to attend my second travel media conference.



I met a heap of cool people. And the amazing Lola, who helped make it all happen.



Back in the UK, I went cycling in the New Forest.



I learnt how to decorate cupcakes. Like ’em? 🙂



I had a bazillion picnics at the park. 
Everyone thought I was obsessed. Possessed by the sun.



London was blessed with a fantastic summer, I couldn’t help it!



I enjoyed my third Lovebox Festival. It got a bit crazy.



I spent a day in Brighton, and it was lovely (not crazy).



I travelled to Lisbon for Optimus Alive festival.



I made some unusual friends there. Know what they gave me?

Back in London, I sat at Primrose Hill and enjoyed a magnificent sunset with friends while waiting to see the full moon.



It was one of many beautiful sunsets I enjoyed around the city.



A lot of evenings were spent outside pubs.



I learnt to play and sing my first full song with my ukulele. 
Looking back at this video, it’s TERRIBLE. I’m much MUCH better now (just believe me)!



I celebrated my birthday.. with a huge picnic at Hyde Park, of course!

 
I went to the best festival of my life – Wilderness Festival. 
It got really crazy. I got really crazy. WILD, some might say.
I MUST write a post on this festival ASAP!



These glasses contributed.



Then I almost blinded myself at the Holi Festival in London.



I travelled solo in Portugal for two weeks and attended surf camp in Sagres. WANT TO GO BACK!



I made a multitude of new friends. Happy friends.



Then I went to Porto for the third time and made even more friends.

I finally got to see the Douro Valley.



After over six years living in this country, I said ‘Fine, I’ll go to Stonehenge’. 

Then I took this photo.



I celebrated Halloween with a wig.



World Zombie Day arrived.



Things got a little crazy that night.



I attended my first World Travel Market.



I went to Romania and stayed with a friend I had met at surf camp.



I went to Porto for the fourth time and reconnected with my friends. 

I decided the city was to be my second home.



I enjoyed the sunshine in Aveiro.



I visited Guimarães, ‘the birthplace of Portugal’, with my adopted family for the day.

 

I had a very English Christmas spent in Surrey. 
I mean, just look at this house!



Then I flew to Bordeaux to spend a week ushering in the New Year. 



I was reunited with great friends. And a lot of cheese.



The first few hours of 2014 were spent with a bunch of random French people. And a unicorn.



The unicorn tells me that 2014 will be yet another enjoyably odd, delightfully crazy, and colourfully happy year.

AND THE UNICORN IS CORRECT.If I had to summarise my 2013 in a sentence, it would be ‘The year my social life exploded, and I spent too much time in Portugal.’

I have had a FANTASTIC year. I’ve had so many days when I was filled with such happiness that my body couldn’t contain it and I end up skipping along the street – no matter that I’m on the way to work. Sometimes I want to jump into the air and tell a tree that I love him/her!

Last year I learnt to snowboard, surf, and skateboard.. amongst other things. This year I’m going to learn to drive (even though I already have a licence.. don’t ask..), get back into swing dancing, and take some flying trapeze classes.

I love life so much and I can’t wait to see what more it has to offer!

Btw Happy New Year Everyone

If you don’t mind sparing a minute, please tell me what your favourite/happiest moment in 2013 was 🙂

The post My Happy Colourful 2013 appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

I mean, look what happens when I have a picnic:

^Rainbow vomit

Anyway, here are my five photos – one for each colour category. I tried not to pick photos that would appear on like, a postcard (you know like pictures of.. a building) or National Geographic, but rather photos that are a lot more personal – after all, this is a BLOG! And I like to tell stories..

RED

This captures one of my proudest travel moments – climbing up Mount Stromboli in Italy to watch the it erupt. A more obscure travel destination in itself, I’d heard of this place the previous summer from an Argentinian girl who was backpacking solo for several months around Europe, and I PROMISED her that I would go.

I was also particularly proud of this moment because I nearly died (via MELTING) getting up there. But it was so worth it. At dusk, I got to sit with my best friend and witness the earth spit out its red hot fire.. I called it nature’s fireworks.

RED – a symbol of power, strength, energy, DANGER. I felt that this photo truly reflected the meaning of the colour red!

YELLOW

This was taken atop Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand. I was there with my whole family during the antipodean summer to celebrate my dad turning 60 (we all skydived and bungee-jumped together too).

One afternoon, there was a spontaneous visit to this mountain and we were going to take a chairlift up, and hike the rest of the way. I figured it would be so much fun to wear my bright yellow lion costume.. for the simple fact that I wanted my photos to feature something bright and colourful – you know to add something exciting to the typical alpine landscape of white, blue, and black/dark brown.

Yellow to me symbolises JOY and happiness – and so here I am, jumping happily in pop-out yellow; the star of my own travel photo.

BLUE

I know this isn’t a great photo in terms of quality. BUT let me explain. I chose this one because it’s a bunch of kids in Portugal doing tarp surfing. You can see that they’ve chosen a large, BLUE (a symbol of water of course) tarp to emulate a wave/tube.. and skateboards to replace surfboards. I love that they’ve taken the ocean to land.. and I feel that they’ve captured the colour of the water by using this big blue tarp!

And let me tell you – tarp surfing is not as easy as it looks.. I watched these kids for ages before I could get this shot (in an excited hurry, hence the low quality) 🙂

GREEN

Can you believe this was taken in Florence? If you’ve been before, you’ll know that Florence isn’t particularly a very ‘green’ city. So when I was walking along the Amo River and saw this BRIGHT GREEN THING on the bank, I was completely struck by its vibrance.

Ok it’s not just a THING.. I suppose it’s a man-made park set up by the river for people to relax or get some sun. It’s only a tiny area, but isn’t it amazing how GREEN the space is?

Well done beautiful Florence for capturing so much restful, natural green in an unusual area. I loved it so much!

WHITE

This photo was taken in Iceland during winter when my friends and I drove the entire the Ring Road and came across the frozen waterfall, Godafoss, part way through. We got out of the car to take a quick walk to erm.. inspect the waterfall. But as we traipsed around the thick snow.. a blizzard started to set in.

Soon, we could very barely see where the snow banks were and we were falling and stumbling over everywhere. It was a sea of WHITE. Or it was what I imagined having cataracts would feel like (admittedly I found it really really exciting – though I’m glad no one fell through into the actual waterfall).

I caught my friend Jason standing in the distance and took a quick snap.

You can see how bad the visibility was.. and how much white we were surrounded by! It’s one of my favourite photos from the trip as I feel it also represents how tiny we are in the world.

I’m meant to tag five people to enter this contest, but seeing as I’m the Last-Minute Queen and the closing date is.. today… I guess there’s no real point in tagging anyone. Sorry guys!

To end this post, I’d like to share with you one of my favourite photos of COLOUR:

It’s a fisherman and his little fishing boat in Nice, France! Look at how colourful his boat is.. isn’t it AMAZING? It’s such a happy-looking boat. I imagine that all the guy does sit there smiling and all these fish/jellyfish/dolphins/etc would pop their heads out of the water, dancing and singing about how wonderful life is.

The post Capture the Colour 2013 appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Tools I Used

I used two apps on my iPhone – Aurora Buddy and Aurora Forecast. I found the latter to be more useful – which explains why Aurora Buddy is now no longer existent.

Aurora Forecast is developed by TINAC and is available on both iOS and Android. It can be used for both northern and southern hemispheres and it’s great because it gives you hourly predictions of solar activity. This is part of what determines whether there are ‘lights’ in the sky or not. However, cloud cover is also an important element as obviously.. what’s the point of level 10 activity when it’s hidden away behind a thick blanket of crappy ol’ CLOUDS? This website by the Icelandic Met Office provides a good cloud cover forecast.

SADCars, our car rental company, also has a concise guide to hunting the Northern Lights in Iceland.

I don’t want to bore you with a bazillion photos, so here is a small selection of my favourites taken that night. All photos were taken using my old Olympus PEN or my friend’s Panasonic Lumix, not any fancy SLR camera.. hence why they might not look that awesome ;p

^Just at the entrance of the hotel.

I was lying on the cold hard ground whilst taking this photo. I remember staring up into the sky, camera tucked away, just enjoying the moment and thinking what a beautiful wonderful world it was (it IS).  And how fortunate I was to be there. Fortunate for the luxury of sight and happy to be alive.

It was all around us.. up above the hotel building, down towards the sea, and back beyond the mountains.

Sometimes they would disappear for a while, and then reappear when you least expect it. Almost like a tease!

We watched the lights dance – yes they really constantly move and change shapes.. like.. magic. There’s no better word, sorry 🙂

^Stars.

I couldn’t believe how incredibly lucky we were.. we stood in the freezing cold watching this magic for HOURS (about 3-4 hours I think), in the company of our fellow hotel guests. We were all mostly silent throughout, as if out of respect for the greatness that was happening in the sky.

Some people indulged themselves with large tripods and giant cameras planted firmly on the ground, creating videos using time-lapse photography (as each frame needs to have a long exposure).

The Camera vs. Your Eyes

It’s important to note that what you see with the naked eye is NOT like what you see in photographs of the aurora. The colours are much more vivid in a photo due to the long exposure and so they appear greener than they really are. What I witnessed that night was mostly a milder, more washed-out shade of green. Sometimes, the camera can even pick up bits of the rarer red or purple colours when actually you couldn’t see them in real life.

But the beauty of what you see with your own eyes is that you can experience the lights while they are ALIVE. Alive as they move, breathe, and dance for you!

I made sure not to spend too much time behind the camera. I wanted to watch, smell, feel, and listen with the best tools I had – my own mind and body.

Note from TinyIceland: When the forecast looks good like above 4-5 then you will see the green colors bright+other colors if lucky with the naked eye:)

[On the night these pics were taken, the forecast was about 3-4]

^Here is the one crappy pic that we managed to get with me in it.. haha

Final Tip

I want to stress that when I planned this trip, I constantly reminded my friends that seeing the northern lights was NOT the purpose of visiting Iceland. I wanted it to simply be a BONUS if we did see it, and if we didn’t, it would be completely fine because we would’ve made the best and most of our time there.

I made sure our itinerary was full of activities that did not include chasing down these lights. However, since we were driving the whole Ring Road, most nights were spent in ‘middle-of-nowhere’ locations where there were almost no light pollution (you need the sky to be as dark as possible, to increase the visibility of any solar activity). I also timed the trip to happen during the new moon (i.e. no moon), so as to at least give ourselves the best chance possible!

Have you seen the Northern Lights before? Tell me where and how much you LOVED it!

*For the rest of my Iceland posts, please see my Travel Log.

The post Iceland – Seeing The Northern Lights! appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

There was a little garden off the side of the hotel that we stayed at.
On the first evening, we walked the local food market, bought lots of street food and ate in the rustic little hut that was built next to the garden.

I brought two (truly magical) wands that I purchased in Bali – you’ll see them a lot more – and a whimsical looking crown to play with. My sister and I did a few silly things in the garden.

I loved that day.

I love her.

The post Magical Wands for a Magical Day appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

There won’t be much of a story going on.. I have no energy to type

I’m sick for the first time in a year and my head feels like the Earth..
I THINK.. playing for 3 hours in the snow on Saturday may have contributed.. or perhaps it was running out to make a snowman in my pajamas yesterday morning >.<

This is what I do to people’s cars when it snows

hehehe

The post The First Snow appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

In an absolute sense I wouldn’t call it ‘large’, but it’s a really charming little town that was quite deserted (in fact the whole island felt really deserted..) since it was reaching the end of the holiday season. The temperature around that time (October) was between 22 – 26 degrees.

Here are pics from the first full day we spent there : :

Had brekkie here by the pool

Went to Greece and had a ‘French Breakfast’.. great..

But to be fair we had Greek food almost every other meal

Wanted to have brekkie at this place cos it looked pretty!

After eating we had a wander around town
And found many shops selling colourful beach/pool floaties and toys
Was so tempted!

Went to check out the quad bikes and mopeds for hire
(more on that in a later post)
The people there seemed to be really easy-going and everything can be bargained or.. discussed
Love it!

Also found out about cruising around the island on a boat through some local tour operators
And got ourselves booked into one for the Sunday

Then.. it was time to walk down to the nearest beach!

Emma skipping along

Olive trees are an abundant resource on the island
Emma had a taste of a raw one, fresh off the tree, (the biggest one she could find) and her verdict was: THEY TASTE DISGUSTING!!

The road leading down to the coastline

Tsilivi Beach

Bracelets by Dannijo

There always, ALWAYS has to be at least one feet photo whenever I’m at the beach!

  

Emma, Aysh, Rose

You’ll see lots of pics of us three jumping throughout this trip
Had so much fun taking these!

One of the good things about it being low-season is.. you get all the sunbeds to yourselves

No huge noisy crowds of annoying british tourists (haha sorry.. but you know what I mean.. ;p)

Aysha’s hand deco

One more thing: Found THIS in the middle of a toy/souvenir shop

The Greeks appear to be very.. hmm.. open minded?!?

In other gift shops we also found a variety of very.. actually I should say EXTREMELY explicit sexual items.

Ok we found a pack of playing cards – each one had an ‘erotic photo’ printed on both sides. And there was one involving three men and a goat. Think I’ve made my point there!

The post Greece – Happy Times at Tsilivi Beach appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

As you approach your destination you must point to it
Just in case

Saw this huge cruise ship, The Norwegian Jade, as we circled around looking for a ‘parking spot’

Yay! Land!

All the people from these boats were probably also traipsing about in the city
*happy holiday people*

One of the many cafe-lined lanes

Me being duh and Joyce sandwiched by Abi + Nir

I remember it being BURNING HOT that day
So hot that.. umm.. i ..wished it were cooler
…….

We caught a bus that carried us up a hill where the palace was

A lot of the buildings in Monte Carlo were painted shades of yellow, reminding me of Salzburg

Narrow lanes
And again green shutters! Like that little town I passed through in Mallorca

View from where we were

Someone up to no good…

Staring at this photo I feel an urge to flick her head off with my finger
HA ha ha

Walking path from the palace downwards

Naughty girls can’t keep both feet on the ground!

Note that my feet are on the ground

This shot never stops amazing me in that it looks so much like a diorama photo!
But no, it’s REAL and all objects in it are REAL

Stopped by an airconditioned cafe later and had some proper profiteroles
There was a plate of really delish pasta as well.. now where is that photo??

Joyce’s fav photo from Monte Carlo Day 😉

Joyce made us some fab cocktails on board with what we had on the boat
Turned out great!

Later on we hung out on the front deck (a daily occurence) as the boat cruised along to our next destination
Doing Nothing 🙂

And playing with fake boobs/our blow up whale

Yes I’m aware that my belly has caused a fold in my bikini bottom.

Can’t wait to share more pics from the other days from this trip!

The post Summer Sailing – Monte Carlo, Monaco appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Ok this time I wasn’t too adventurous and didn’t take many photos around Somerset House, what more people (unlike last year). The photos in this post aren’t too exciting but I wanted to publish this anyway for my records.

Somerset House is a beautiful place
And during Fashion Week, it gets inundated with scores of beautiful people. Mostly wearing also beautiful shoes.. although I just can’t understand running around the whole day in pain-inducing footwear. I’m much more practical these days. Try to be anyway 😉

Most of these pics were taken in the evening when the crowd had tapered down

Entrance (ramp) to the BFC Showspace
This is where people would queue for shows held at this venue

Met Kristabel there on one of the days

Top Kookai
Pants Topshop
Shoes vintage (Etsy)
Scarf vintage

Think I need to start exercising/stop eating so much
I can see now that I’m bigger than my normal size >.<

Jazmine + Kb + my bag

I just love this photo cos of Jazmine’s totally SLY-looking face HA ha ha
Also met Winnie for the first time but unfortunately we haven’t got a photo together

Mac + Toni&Guy in the press lounge
Apparently you can book appointments to get your face/hair done
But I couldn’t be bothered hehe

This wall was what you’d see as you entered the courtyard through the Strand

Nature vs Fashion

On the last day that the womenswear exhibitions were on
I made my way to Somerset House again with the intention of looking at whatever I hadn’t seen earlier

Which was mainly the Topshop NEWGEN section, accessible via the terrace (facing Embankment)

But as I stood outside the entrance to the tent
I looked up at the sky.. it was clear
BRIGHT, SUNNY, WARM

Which meant, I simply couldn’t pull myself away from it all, into SHADED premises just to look at CLOTHES AND SHOES
Sometimes, nature really just trumps fashion

Leaning against the balcony I breathed it all in and felt so thankful that London was blessed with one more, possibly last, semi-summery day before the leaves fall and winter takes over

In that moment, fashion was a far, far away thing in my mind
Insignificant
And I was so glad

The post London Fashion Week – Somerset House + Outfit (Sep ‘10) appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

These [happy] pics are from the second day (Dance Day) of Wireless Festival in July 2010
I miss those amazing summer months! Go away September!, it’s really not your time yet!

I remember arriving earlier than Joyce
I walked onto the grounds and proceeded towards the main stage where Aysha etc were after I bought my drinks
Closer to the stage I began to hear some yelling and chanting and lots of bass
And people were SWARMING in like drones assembling in their place of worship

Turns out, Snoop Dogg was starting

”No no no no oh noooo…” I thought to myself, while moving as fast as I could in the opposite direction, ESCAPING

Imagine my relief when I rang Joyce and she tells me she’s JUST coming through the gates
We sat down on the grass far away from the stage and did our favourite thing: nothing.
When the speakers bellowed a ridiculous ‘PUT YOUR MF HANDS IN THE AIR’, we had a self-pitying laugh to ourselves as she muttered under her breath, “this is my nightmare coming true..”

I nodded in agreement.
Sorry Snoop Dogg, we really don’t like you!

They didn’t like him either..

Joyce’s shorts

My shorts!
They were cut from a pair of leggings I got at a vintage clothes market in Amsterdam 🙂

New Young Pony Club
I had never heard them before but I like them!

Joyce and her buddies

With Joyce’s childhood friend Jason

The sky was beautiful
There was something in the air that day
A good kind of something 🙂

I ran to the front of the stage later on to meet Aysh etc for 2manydjs
Who were SUPER
We were dancing like crazy people and doing silly things
Everyone in the crowd was clearly having fun and just letting go
It was such a great vibe

Emma + Aysha

Aysha wore this fantastic 2-piece outfit that had a sheep on it
The best part: the sheep GLOW in the dark!!!

The night was ended with a ride on the carousel
[not counting stuffing ourselves with midnight kebabs later on]

Everyone was laughing and giggling as it went round and round
With all the bright lights speeding by in a blur and cold air on our faces
You could say it was somewhat magical 🙂

Click: Previous post on Wireless Day 1

*pics from Joyce, Aysha, myself. Edited by me.

The post Wireless Festival / Saturday / New Young Pony Club, 2manydjs, LCD Soundsystem, etc appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Anyway
Went to Wireless Festival with Joyce on the Friday where the lineup included The 88, Temper Trap, Pink, Plan B, Daisy Dares You.. etc etc
We had just returned from Amsterdam less than 2 days before and looked forward to hanging around the park, listening to music and Doing Nothing – just like how it was at Isle of Wight!

Through my time in London – it was my 3 year anniversary in June 😉 – I’ve never been to a real/big music festival. I was so focused on travelling that it hardly even crossed my mind! This year will be different.

The giant slide that everyone (meaning Joyce and I) was so excited about

Joyce brought her pet golf ball Wilson along
He’s been to heaps of places
He’s naughty. He drinks a lot and never stops smiling!

Rabbit print top Zara
Shorts gift from Joyce
Bag & Scarf vintage

Rings from H&M
Nail polish a mix of yellow + bright pink by Barry M

The band I was most looking forward to seeing was The 88
Brings back memories of The O.C. days (they had a couple of songs on the soundtrack. “How Good Can It Be’ was one)!
Me and in my room in the dead of night watching episode after episode
And then not being able to wake up for uni the next day….

I was so mesmerised by guy on the keyboard
Bouncing up and down so vigorously on his stool that I thought “hmm you might as well just STAND!’”

The moment
I waited for it
Was when they performed ‘Coming Home’
I LOVE this song [got so excited typing this that it’s now playing on my iTunes]
Felt so HAPPY standing there 🙂

The Temper Trap

Most unexpected phenomenon of the day: US. Dancing to.. PINK!!!

Confession: Neither of us like her music

We also saw her perform at IoW so it was nothing new
Maybe it was the drinks but we ended up dancing and jumping around like crazy people and having the best time!
Not really paying much attention to the music I suppose, haha

Look how dirty our feet got!

Met Joyce’s friends who were also here on holiday
L-R [oh no I’m so sorry I cannot remember her name :(], Melissa, Nadia
They were so much fun to hang out with

Such a pity these girls don’t live in London!

All in all.. It was a fantastic first day at the festival
Wait for the next post on Saturday 😉

I feel so lucky this summer

Today while walking home, listening to my favourite music and feeling the warm sunshine pouring down from the blue sky above, I felt so overwhelmed by happiness and positivity that I couldn’t help thinking

OH MY GOD it is just so BEAUTIFUL *cries* OMG
Happy to be alive!

*most photos credit to Joyce and her camera; edited by me

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