A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to be invited to a friends 22nd birthday where she decided to go on a wine tour in the Hunter Valley. The trek was quite the distance, me living over 2 hours away and having had a 21st birthday the night before. I was strategically planning out my moments of sleep. Having the other 21st birthday the night before, I went to bed at 2am and woke up at 5am to begin my journey up to the central coast to meet with my friend for her birthday. My gosh I was tired and the first thing I did that morning was go through macca's drive thru and order a coffee in the hopes that would keep me awake while driving. I got to my friends place at around 8.30am where we met with warm hugs and excitement as we hadn't seen each other in AGES. We spent the next hour just talking about everything that's been happening in our lives; from relationships, career prospects, you name it. We then met with about 12 other girls on a what I like to call a 'party' bus and made the journey up to the Hunter Valley. While the wine tasting was fun, the party bus was certainly were all the good times happened. We took on board plenty of cheap Aldi wine (which is surprisingly delicious), cheese, crackers, dip and (of course) ferrero rocher's.

We spent our time on the bus, talking, dancing, laughing and drinking. The only person I knew was the birthday girl but I got to meet a heap of awesome chicks that I never would have met if I didn't go on this trip. What was even more shocking was that I wasn't even tired. I throughly enjoyed every minute of this visit. Truth be told, if I was invited to this a year ago, I wouldn't have gone. In the last eight or so months, I've completely transformed myself and have lost a tone of weight (story coming shortly). I was so self conscious, lazy and had no confidence to put myself out like this before. Now t I've completely changed the way I look at myself and am now enjoying my life. I put myself out of my comfort zone and I'm so glad that I did and I've definitely noticed that I'm doing this more often. I'm now excited to meet new people as I see it as a chance to connect and maybe even start some new friendships (really trying not to be cliché here). After all five winery stops (yes you read correctly) and the plenty of wine we put into our bodies on the bus we then headed out for a night on the town. Take it from me, I use to see putting myself out there as a chore and something that I just wasn't interested in. Now I see it as an opportunity to meet some fantastic people and on the tour I got to met some pretty awesome chicks! Don't be afraid, just embrace.

Ahhhh do you have a plan? A common question asked by adults pretty much from the start of Year 12. My general response to this, lets be honest, an incredibly annoying question, is that I channel my inner Phoebe Buffay and respond accordingly, "I don't have a pla". I don't have a plan. Honestly I don't. And to be honest, even if I did have a plan, its none of your business. Your asking me (a young 17-year-old at the time) if I have a plan for the rest of my life. ARE YOU FUCKING INSAINE?! Yes, I've completely mapped out my entire life from 18 to the age of 112 (cause that's how long I plan to live). Because, of course, the world isn't going to throw a few curve balls at me, the world is completely predictable. The short answer is no. The world isn't predictable. But isn't that what makes it so great? You don't know what's right around the corner. The next best thing in life could be arriving at your doorstep any minute and surprise you, but you might miss it cause' its not apart of your 'master plan'. Let me make this clear. A plan and goals are two very different things. Goals are a great thing to have as they give you an idea of what you want in life and where you want to go. A PLAN however is something that you put in your mind as something that is set in stone. One doesn't even know who they are at 17, let alone have a master plan as to how their life is going to turn out. I definitely have goals in life, but the path I choose to take there is not set in stone, it's actually how you build this path that makes life interesting; one brick at a time. Or even yet, the bricks that get thrown at you are the roads that have the most amazing destinations.

11th of April 2017. Adele graced Sydney with her presence for her second show at ANZ Stadium. Myself and 95,000 became in awe of her as soon as she let her vocal pipes reign supreme (we also became emotional wrecks). The best parts about Adele's concert though? Her stories. The moment when she just talked to the crowd and engaged with us with some of the most relatable stories you could ever hear. Stories about her first real love, break-ups, son, relationships and everything in between. Adele could have a stand up comedy show and I would go (she's hilarious). She's such a down to earth, kind hearted soul and you left the concert felling like you just became best friends with a Grammy award winner. My favourite funny moment was right at the beginning of the night, she had just finished singing Hello and she started talking. She said "are you all ready to have fun tonight", the crowd responded with a big roar "YAAAASSSS", Adele reciprocated "well that's going to shit cause all my songs are sad". HAHA I do appreciate a self aware person. I was lucky enough to be taken to this concert by my best friend who won tickets. We laughed, we cried, we felt emotions that we didn't know existed. Please refer to photo below which pretty much summed up mine and 95,000 other people's emotions.

Wine Confessions. The letters W T F may have passed through your mind when seeing this series appear on my blog. It is common for us as to catch-up, socialise and take some me-time over a nice glass of wine. So sit back with your cheese board and a glass of rosé as I spill my emotions, stories of good times and deep and meaningful thoughts while probably slightly under the influence.

ROC Race. Stands for ridiculous obstacle course. Think Wipeout meets that jumping castle that a random kid had at their 6th birthday when you were in kindergarten. Long story short, ROC Race is an excuse for adults to act like children; and I loved every single minute of it! This 5km course is filled with obstacles that you just have to laugh at when completing. Note: You must have a sense of humour to do this course. If you're a regular 'Debbie Downer', I do not recommend. Having the ability to laugh at yourself when doing this will make the experience 10x more fun! I was lucky enough to do this course with my best friend, however this would be the best fun to do with a whole group of mates.


You start the 'race' (I quote 'race' as there is no winner) with a mini foam party which immediately gets you into a great mood and then for some reason, when they say go, you do actually run; and i'm the type of person where the only type of running that I do are the ones on the way to macca's, so that was weird. There were around 12 different obstacles, and yes, there were the big balls. Also, yes we took every pun and sexual innuendo opportunity we could with that obstacle. My personal favourite was: "How deep?", "Balls deep". From rotating levers to super water slides, there is no limit to the amount of funs and laughs that you can have doing this course. Would definitely recommend!

Long gone are the days when you went to the pub for a regular schnitty or your common steak and three veg. No, no; like it or not (I definitely like) the era of food porn. Presented within both savoury and sweet food, "food porn" (as I like to define it), is taking regular food and turning it up. Not just a notch but about five different levels with innovative ideas on how to transport your tastebuds to another world. One of my first experiences of food porn was at, now my beloved pub, The Erko. I went there with your regular expectations and ordered a 'pub grub' classic, a chicken parmigiana. Little did I know that this dish would change my life.

Let me break it down for you. Your regular chicken parmigiana is a plain chicken schnitzel coated with marinara sauce, either bacon or ham and topped off with melted cheese with the usual sides of coleslaw and chips. The Erko's chicken parmigiana takes your regular schnitzel, coats it in your traditional marinara sauce, but here's the catch. Instead of your regular piece of ham or bacon, they've decided to break the rules and put, drum roll please... pulled pork. PULLED PORK!!! Holy Crap! Genius. Absolute genius! Served with shoestring fries and seriously, the best side of coleslaw you will ever have, this classic meal with a twist will change the way you think about 'pub grub'.

Do you love to eat? Do you wake up thinking about food and go to sleep with food on your mind? Well, you and I have that in common. Food speaks to me on a spiritual level. I love cooking, serving, eating, even (get this)... SHARING FOOD! Reality Bites is my food review series. Mainly, it's just an excuse for me to eat more food. So sit back and read upon the regular times where I stuff my face :)

Hi there, and welcome to Kayla's Reality, written by non-other than me, Kayla! 

I'm a 24-year-old who likes to appear like she has her shit together (but in reality, I don't). This is my life as I know it. It's time to start forgetting my fantasies and enjoying my reality because, in fact, my reality is pretty awesome!

I'm from Australia and New Zealand however, I'm currently living in London on a two-year visa. I work as a copywriter full time and I started this blog six years ago when I was studying journalism in Sydney. I wanted to start writing about me and my life in the hopes that it would help me realise how lucky I am. It's totally crazy to me that I started this blog out of a wandering thought. And now, six years later I've done a bunch of travelling, had some crazy moments and have picked up my life and moved to the other side of the world. 

I hope that writing about my life inspires you take leaps in your life, makes you enjoy it more cause damn does life go quick! 

xx Kayla 

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Email: kaylaburke818@gmail.com