My updated bucket list

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Me and my life long friend in London

At the Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Every person should have a bucket list of things they want to do, before they kick the bucket (die).

Two of my big dreams and on my bucket list have been completed. France and the UK. It was a huge privilege that I was able to go and not many people get to do it.

Here is the rest of my bucket list: (Warning! May contain content of extreme awesomeness!)

1. Backpack through the WHOLE Europe.
2. Go to Texas to visit my uncle (Happening in 2015)
3. Learn more about other religions and cultures
4. Take up my French and Dutch again (or it will get lost)
5. Visit Machu Picchu
6. Learn an African language like Zulu
7. Go to class in my pajamas
8. I want to experience a white Christmas or even just see snow
9. I want to volunteer at Rehab center for animals that got hurt and nurse them back to health. (Happening in 2014)
10. I want to name a star after myself.
11. For a birthday I want to have a dress-up party, where we dress in awesome clothes like the 1920's (Happening this year, 2014, on my 21st)
12. I would love to go to Egypt and see the Pyramides.
13. Do a boat cruise.
14. I want to do a diving course and do deep sea diving. Experience the wonders of the ocean.
15. Learn to meditate.
16. Visit catacombs in all the countries that has them. I was already in Paris' catacombs. 
17. Experience the mysteries of the world. (Bermuda Triangle, lost treasures, etc...)
18. Find the best squidheads to eat in the world. The best so far was at Primi Piatti. (I have found the best at Mike's Kitchen in Parktown)
19. Read all the books I possibly can. I LOVE READING!!!!!
20. Meet James Patterson, I am his biggest fan! He is an author, in case you're wondering.
21. Find a book I have been looking for- Children of the dust. But can't find it anywhere.

Here are 5 things I added to my list:

• Do a course on Uncollege.org, It teaches you all the skills you need to know for the job you really want to have.
• Blog more and become my own blog personality
• While travelling, I also want to visit all the architectural historic sites of Europe.
• I also want to backpack through El Camino the Santiago- The way of St James.
• Raise money for a cause I feel strongly about.

More things will be added to this list, but for now it is all I can think of...

My favorite photo in London, UK.

Please feel free to leave a comment :)

This bookworm is not happy!

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

I HATE it when I am excited to start reading a book and I spend 2-3 days on this book, just to come to the end and say WTF?

The mysteries: Robert McGill
Rating: 2/10
Genre: Crime fiction

I am crazy about crime fiction. I love to solve the crime with the cops and to keep guessing until the end who the bad guy was.

It took me a few days to read this book, because it was not good writing. It was a 300-pager, meaning I can usually finish it within a day or two (If it is good writing).  I was amped to read this book, because the summary was promising and I love the title!

The summary:

Robert, a young traveller, finds himself in 

the small Ontario town of Sunshine,

in the middle of a party at the town's wildlife park. 

A stranger he picked up on the way has 

given him a dirty yellow notebook and told 

him to give it to an Alice Penderson. 

But Alice disappeared two years ago.

Six months before Robert's arrival , human 

remains have been recovered from the

local shoreline. Stoddart Fremlin has been

arrested on suspicion of murder. Daniel

Barrie, who was having an affair with Alice 

and who left for England immediately after

her disappearance, has unexpectedly 

returned. At the same time Rocket DeWitt,

one of the last people to see Alice alive,

has left town. And amid all this, there is 

a tiger on the loose.

This book didn't grab me in the beginning, which is absolutely crucial for most readers, even me! It took me two days just to get past the first few pages. I told myself to stick it out and try reading further.

There was way too many characters and way too many points of views! I couldn't keep track where the new characters fit into the story, or if they fit in at all? Most characters had NOTHING to do with Alice Penderson, who went missing. They were just filling up pages.
When I came to the end of the book, my reaction was WTF!!! Because the disappearance/murder of the Alice Penderson is still a MYSTERY.  Maybe that is why the book's name is 'The mysteries'. There is no follow-up on this book, I checked!

I am so disappointed that I spent so much time on this book. I could've just read the summary and I would know what happens in the book. Maybe this is an artsy book with deeper meaning and symbolism, but that is not why I read Crime Fiction! I want to solve the case! Not analyze a book! If I want to analyze books, I will go and study English Literature.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. This bookworm by heart is not happy!

Way to begin 2014

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Every year, I usually spend New Years at home with my family, but this year I was invited to my friend's weekend home at the Vaaldam.

Me and Melanie on New Years

I realized that I didn't take enough photos because we were so busy having fun, that taking photos hardly ever came to mind. We enjoyed our time by tubing, riding boat, riding on quad bikes, jet skiing, reading and simply just catching up on gossip and simply just talking nonsense.

Emjee and me going to ride tube

Riding the tube

Melanie riding the boat

Tanning in the sun

Their beautiful weekend home

The lapa/braai area

These are mostly all the photos that I had taken. I wish I had photos of when we rode on the quad bikes and when we jet ski'd. But we had so much fun, that it never came to mind.

I only came back today and it really was a great way to begin 2014. Thank you Melanie for having me.

How did you spend your New years?

Bookworm by heart

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

I am a huge bookworm and I have my mom to thank for that, because she awakened my love for books. Every night she would read stories to me and she always encouraged me to read books. Often, we went to the library to take out some books. It was my heaven. My dream is still that I will one day write my own books.

My bookshelf, excluding a lot of books on my nightstand

You know you're a bookworm when...:

• You lost count on how many books you've read. I am far over the 100, maybe even in the 200's...
• You can read a 500 pager in less than 2 days.
• You run into every bookstore you see and all the books ask you to buy them.
• You know where most of the second hand bookstores are, because you can afford to buy lots of books with a tight budget.
• When you are bored, you will read almost anything, even a cookbook. Yip, that happened to me before.
• You know you are a good book reader, when you put a book down, because it is not going the way you want to. Later, you accept the fate of the book and decide to read further because it's all you have.
• You know the writing style of your favorite authors. 
• Your bookshelf is overloaded with books and you don't know where to put them anymore. (First world problems)
• You are so caught up in the book, you don't hear anything going on around you. 
• The characters becomes so much part of your life that you wish they were your actual friends.

My mom's bookshelf, excluding the ones on her nightstand

My favorite author is James Patterson, he writes fiction books, but man oh man, is he good! Some of his books have been transformed into movies, like 'Along came a spider', 'Kiss the girls' and 'Alex Cross'.

Are you a bookworm? Who is your favorite author?