Last weekend at home!

With only 3 days to go now (actually only 2 full days as I will be leaving early Friday morning) I definitely needed to make the most of my last weekend at home. A couple of weeks ago I decided to organise a little leaving party, and told my best friend Lucy about it. She lives in England, so she checked Ryanair flights and believe it or not booked them a few minutes later, for less than 40 Euros return! So this Saturday I drove to the airport (one thing I’m not going to miss – driving on snowy and icy roads!) and picked her up. In the evening a group of friends came round and we cooked Mexican food, and then all went out into town, where a whole load of other friends came and met us.
We had such a good night out and it was definitely a great way to say bye to all of my friends!

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The next day (surprisingly we weren’t as hungover as we were expecting to be!!) my mum drove us up to a place called Magdalensberg for a late lunch. There is an amazing restaurant/guesthouse on the top of this hill, which serves traditional Austrian food and is all family run. It was the perfect day to go up, as although it was pretty chilly the sun was out and there was a beautiful clear sky. 
As we were having our meal the sun was setting, we even went out between courses to take pictures of the sunset! 

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On Monday we decided to do some shopping! We wondered round the Christmas Market in my town, but it was too cold to stay outside for long. Both of us managed not to buy too much in the shops, I have been having to restrain myself from buying winter clothes by thinking about Dubai every time I see something I want!

In the evening one of my good friends from work arranged to go for drinks, and when we got there a whole group of others from work had come, which was a lovely surprise! They also got me a book called “1000 Places to see before you die” – I’m hoping my new job will help me do that!

Yesterday evening and this morning Lucy helped me sort out my clothes – 1 pile to take with me, 1 pile to give to charity and 1 pile to keep but not take with me. Somehow I have a feeling I’ll never wear the “keep but don’t take with me” pile again, but I can’t justify getting rid of over half of my wardrobe! I don’t even want to know how many pairs of shoes were thrown away!

This evening after taking Lucy back to the airport, I started on the packing. I honestly have no idea how I am going to fit everything in! I’m allowed 50kg, plus hand luggage. One of my suitcases is already over half full and pretty much all it has in is shoes and underwear! 
Here’s a picture of me squeezing into one of my suitcases!
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Well, this was quite a long post! The next time I write anything will probably be from Dubai! Only 2 full days left, when did this even happen! I’m so nervous and excited at the same time – it’s crazy!

Less than 3 weeks to go

So the past 2 days I spent some time staying with a good friend of mine called Iris and her boyfriend Claudio, who live in Graz, which is about a 1,5 – 2 hour drive away. They came and picked me up on Sunday evening and we drove to their flat, which I actually helped them paint a couple of months ago! 
Iris had the day off from uni on Monday, so we spent all day shopping! I love shopping with her, although somehow I always end up spending so much money! This time I did buy quite a few things, but I also managed to get all my Christmas presents (for mum, dad, and my two brothers) so that was very successful. One thing that I did treat myself to was a red lipstick from Chanel (ahhhh, so exciting – and it stays on so well!) as I will be wearing red lipstick every day once I move to Dubai. I also got a blazer and top for myself, but they were on sale so I just had to get them! 😉

Only 17 days left til I fly out! I can’t believe how quickly time flies, and I have so much left to do! I have started sorting out my room, and I have SO MUCH STUFF! I don’t know where half my things have come from or why I ever thought I would need them! I still need to pack up my bookshelves, decide what to do with all my old school stuff (which in reality I know I will never look at again, but it seems like such a waste to throw it all away!) and then the most important bit, start sorting out which clothes and shoes to take with me!
I also need to have a look and see if we have a suitcase that I can take; I have a really nice one which I’ll use for hand luggage, but I need 2 bigger ones for everything else. I will have 50kg luggage allowance so I need a big but light suitcase!

It’s really getting real now – I’m actually moving to Dubai!