Hi everyone,

As my self-isolation is coming to an end soon, I am starting to run low on free time to do things I never do, for example, gardening and more artwork. During this time I have also been having a think about what my future holds ahead for me and came to the realisation that I have no idea what’s coming (blog on that next week!).

So I decided to hop online for some ways to help me visualise what I want to do in the future, you don’t have to know what waits for you, no pressure, I am just the kind of person who likes to have perspective and some sort of ideas for the future. So I found this idea; you pick an age and list the number of things all the way up to that age you want to do before you turn that age, makes sense?

So I decided to choose 25, I have always thought that by that age I will have some sort of hit of achievement, even though most see your 20’s to be the most confusing part of your life, I just started mine so only time will tell I guess.

Below is my list of 25 by 25, most of the personal, some generic, just somethings I thought to share with you so you can see where I want to be in 5 years time, maybe ill do a post at 25 reflecting back on this? I’ll try and remember to do that, unless I have done absolutely nothing on this list and be too ashamed.

 

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1. Visit my dream destination: Egypt: Me, my family and boyfriend have a holiday booked to go to Hurghada in December, although the current pandemic is going on currently and Egypt are not taking any flights in, I still hope we can go. I have always had a fascination with Egypt and their history ever since I have been a child, so this will literally be a dream come true. If we don’t go then I will try again, before 25 of course!
2. Get my own dog: I already have 2 dogs currently that are family dogs, but I really want my own dog with my boyfriend one day. I know it will happen because I simply cannot live without them. I don’t know what breed right now, me and my boyfriend have been looking at Cockapoo’s, they are very cute, but whatever comes my way I guess.
3. Start my career: I want to have a good head start in whatever I choose to do with my degree, I like the idea of working in marketing and lately an editor role has come to mind too. Whatever I choose I want to do well in it and excel up the job titles.
4. Get my own flat with my boyfriend: We have been talking about this for the past year now, when we finish our degrees and find well-established jobs, we want to move in together, we are planning about 2 years from now but only time will tell!
5. Get engaged: Another thing that has been discussed lots of time between us two, I hope it will happen within 5 years!
6. Furnish my first place exactly how I want to: Like everyone, I have my dream design ideas, and I intended to make them all come true in our first place. I want it to feel like home and I want to love coming back there after work or outings.
7. Learn more editing skills: I want to know more and how to do editing things better. I know the basics of Photoshop and InDesign and other film editing software, I just want to find the time and place to learn more about them, another thing to add to the CV!
8. Start saving money to build my own home: My boyfriend is keener on this than me, I want to own my own house one day but I’m not as into it at the moment, not really thinking about it, but just in case I change my mind one day I might as well start saving.
9. Visit the death museum in LA: This is an odd one, I love true crime and horror, I don’t love that it happens obviously, but I like listening to stories about what happened from the past. I watch a Youtuber called Bailey Sarian and she does true crime and makeup videos, and she mentioned this museum, and now I am obsessed and very dedicated to go there one day.
10. Battle my anxiety: Just in general and my flight anxiety too, I want to know more about it and work on it a little more, I hate that it has such a hold over my life.
11. Start planning children?: I have always wanted children, but now that I am older and I see how much work and knowledge they require I am a little off-put, one day definitely but not in my 20’s! My friend recently had a baby as I mentioned in my last post and that is also the reason why I am a little off-put, they are so much work!
12. Gardening: I want to know more about it I guess? I want a beautiful garden one day and that is not going to happen with me only sometimes remembering to water 2 houseplants every other day.
13. Learn another language: Spanish in particular, I already know English and Polish so having another one under my belt will make me more full I guess! I just like how they are so different so I want to know more.
14. Learn to dance (somewhat): Anyone that knows me knows I hate dancing, I HATE IT, dancing at weddings always ends in an argument with my boyfriend, I avoid going to clubs because I just hate dancing so much, and considering I want to battel my anxiety and get married someday, which includes doing a first dance, I need to get a grip on how to dance.
15. Do a small tour of America: My parents always spoke about doing this one day but so far have not got round to doing it so I really want to do it with my boyfriend one day, he has always wanted to go to America and I’m curious too, maybe New York, LA and somewhere else, not sure yet.
16. Do more photography: My grandad was a photographer, and I come from a creative family all together so it is something I enjoy doing but not really push myself into it as much, I love writing more but one day I want to get a good camera and focus more on photos too, ie my photo stories.
17. Yoga or meditation: I always think of doing this but I always think my family and friends will laugh at me (anxiety, hello?) I feel like it will make me happier and calmer in life so when I move out in a few years time it’s something I definitely want to try.
18. Self-happiness: I have a lot of issues with self-confidence and its really something that goes up and down for me on a weekly basis, I want to feel happy with the way I look, be more healthy and just not worry so much about my appearance to others, growth in this area comes with time so I hope by 25 this is under some sort of my control mentally.
19. Like mornings: Another thing I hate, mornings. I hate waking up early or sometimes even getting out of bed all together. I am a nightmare without coffee and will not speak until I have one, so I want to change that and be more pleasant during that time of the day, for the sake of my boyfriend.
20. Learn to cook: I am a terrible cook, I maybe know how to cook 5 things, so I need to learn some new stuff, again this will come with time, I hope!
21. Go out more: I am such an introvert it’s crazy, I have been self-isolating for a week and a half and doing very well without people, my boyfriend, on the other hand, is an extrovert and is going crazy in the house. I want to be more like him, be more open to meeting new people and going out to the town to do things with others. Because right now its: boyfriend – best friend – boyfriend – best friend – my bed.
22. Re-do my whole wardrobe: Something I always dream of doing and most girls do, I want to have enough money one day to throw away all my old rags and buy everything new in the one style I love.
23. Cut people off: The unhealthy ones, of course, people who hurt me and I secretly don’t want relations with, I hope the courage comes with age.
24. Be more involved in animal rescue: I love animals, if you have read my blog before you probably already know that. Currently, I sponsor a dog with Dogs Trust but I want to do more and help.
25. Graduate, obviously: I want to graduate with the best grade possible. I work hard but I just need that extra push to get into that top grade boundary, I want to do it and be proud of my degree, that I finished, and was top of my class.

 

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I know there has been a lot of “I’s” and “My boyfriend” in this post today but that’s how I picture my future, with the one I love, sorry! I thought this would give some insight more into who I am and also show some of you a good way to set some goals if you need to.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post, there might be a lack of posts now for the next week because I will be finishing an assignment I have for my uni instead of doing a placement year, so I will be back next week definitely! (I will be active on my Instagram: @soeffortlessblog)

Love, Kasia x

Hi All,

As you may know from my last post, I am currently Self Isolating due to the law in place in the UK for travellers. I travelled to Germany after this new law has started and now I am stuck at home! And let me tell you, I am dying of boredom.

I wish I could even go for a walk, but I am not even allowed to do that which is driving me insane. 2 days ago I sat in the garden for a while doing some crafts, as the day before I had a really bad mental health day (which happens to the best of us!) because of this self-isolation. I am used to seeing my boyfriend and his family a lot when I am home and when I wasn’t living at home I lived with my best friend (Simply Everything) so it really is meddling with my mind a lot. I know I have my parents around currently but it’s a different type of social interaction if you know what I mean? My friends don’t tell me to do the dishes, for starters.

Below I have inserted an image of what I ended up making in my escape to the garden, I have always wanted one of these but my mother would never allow it, she says its bad energy, but now she likes them so I guess opinions change. I haven’t been into my pastel arts as much lately, I have periods of time when I am really into it and that’s all I do but currently I don’t even know where my pastels are! So if the art part of this blog goes a little dry you know why! I am not going to force myself to do it, just have to wait when the inspiration hits I guess. If any of you have any inspo images, send them my way.

Also, I have been kept busy by playing Sims, I know some people may think its a really childish game but I really like it, keeps me occupied and allows me to bring my creative stories to life in a different way other than just writing them. I have lots of mods and additions so its cool to play to keep my mind off the current issues. When I was in Germany I played on my boyfriend’s laptop, which is a 10000000x better than mine, so now going back to my 2010 laptop, the lag and slowness is driving me insane! hoping to buy a new one for the new academic year as I will be writing my dissertation, but we shall see.

I have also been watching a lot of Polish TV (because that’s all we have in our house) and the elections are driving me crazy! Don’t get me wrong there are some good candidates, obviously not perfect as always with politics, but the current president (Andrzej Duda) is running again and I have always been the one to say that Poland is always 30 years behind, and this election proves me right. Some statements that come out of his mouth are as follows:

• “LGBTQ+ people are not people”
• “LGBTQ+ is just an ideology that is ruining Poland and the idea of family”
• “They are sexualising children”

When I saw this I was in absolute disbelief. This is disgusting that people cannot just be people simply because of their sexual orientation. Taking away basic human rights and outright outcasting people is not right and it makes me ashamed to be part of such a country that treats people this way. These are people and they deserve as many rights as anyone else who is straight, of colour, not of colour or anything else. They are not hurting anyone and Poland’s idea of protecting the family is just absolutely old fashioned and outdated. The worst part is that people support this? there are people at his debates supporting him and his disgusting ideas, which makes me even happier that I will be voting this year and kicking his butt out of his position.

All of these emotions and other things have also gotten me more into my current therapy I am in for my fear of flying. Me and my boyfriend have now booked to go to Poland in August to see family, which has opened my eyes that I need to be more active in my fear. I have started a journal for my emotions and just daily things that happen to keep track of and started thinking about flying more, for example simulating the experience just before I got to bed in my head, to get used to the feeling. It has been helping a little but I know I have much more work to do.

Nothing else to report otherwise, just my friend had a baby, cant wait to go see her after this is done! I will be stuck at home for another 8 days now, but I think I can deal with it. If anyone else is self-isolating too, make sure to keep your self busy, otherwise, it might start to get daunting!

Stay safe,

Love, Kasia x

*Note: Sorry this post is very late, I got stuck in Germany for a week so I was busy stressing over that situation, more on that below, enjoy!*

Hi everyone,

During crazy times like these, I see many people are not up for travelling. This is mostly due to restrictions and obvious concern for personal safety, which is understandable. Yet, nevertheless, I decided to travel to Germany by car with my boyfriend, he was an exchange student but had to rush home due to the virus and he left a lot of his things in his apartment there, so we decided to go and collect them and give the keys back for the flat.

I thought it would be a good idea to show you what it was like travelling during the current circumstances. Not by plane but by car and ferry, show you what restrictions and checks are happening and what countries are doing to keep their citizens safe.

During this time, I was filming the process and I was going to post it here in a vlog format, but I found out quickly I am not good at vlogging, I hate myself on camera and scraped the whole idea, maybe next time!

Also, as mentioned in the note above, we got stuck in Germany. We were supposed to only be there for 2 days, to pack and go. But as we were packing up the car to leave on the 4th we noticed something leaking from the car, and it was the engine coolant.
The part had to be delivered from France to fix the car (as we have a right-hand drive car) so we had to wait a week and then finally made it home. But originally we were supposed to make it back to the UK before the new self-isolation rule, but we did not, which kind of makes this more interesting to write as there were a lot more checks at border control on the way back!

Enough explanations, below are the experiences from travelling during CO-VID19 by car and ferry, enjoy.

 

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LEAVING THE UK:

When we arrived at Dover port, we were asked for our passports as usual, but before we got there we did some research and found out that while travelling through France and Belgium, you need to have this document filled out, it consisted of your name, why you were travelling etc. Also, it was advised to have some sort of proof of residency or any other document to prove your reason for travelling through the country. So we did as asked, Dawid had his residency agreement and proof of being enrolled in the university he was in. None of that was asked for, nothing, just passports and that’s it, just as if there was no pandemic, we got on the ferry and that was that. The funny thing was that when we drove up the first checkpoint, we passed the man at the widow our passports, which are Polish. He said, and I quote, “Ah Polish? you can go”.

FERRY:

While also doing research as mentioned before, we found out that DFDS (the ferry company we were using) required you to wear a mask and gloves while on board. So me and Dawid were prepared, got out the car in gloves and masks, and then looked like absolute idiots. No one else was wearing masks or gloves, not even the crew! We kept ours on just for the sake of it, I mean we went through the effort might as well follow along now. Other than that it was just like any other ferry ride, which was common for the both of us as we travel to Poland by car a lot, there was just not as many people as usual, which is understandable due to the virus.

FRANCE AND BELGIUM:

We didn’t stop in these countries a lot, so not much to say here, we stopped at one service stop in Belgium, same on the way back, and people were just wearing masks and as in the UK, social distancing. So obviously we did the same and were back in the car on our way.

GERMANY:

When we finally arrived in Germany, we first went to do some small shopping for the expected few days we were going to be there, we went into the store and everyone is wearing masks, everyone except us. At the time we didn’t know the current rules so we just did our shopping quickly and went home, to then later find out that it is mandatory to wear masks in enclosed spaces, but outdoors you don’t have to wear them. Now for the rest of our time in Germany, we followed these rules and it was all okay. Also, we found out that when you go to restaurants, you need to sanitize your hands, sign some paperwork with your details on there (not really clear on why as it was all written in German) and wear masks until you were seated, same with bars.

BORDER CONTROL RETURNING:

After a stressful time in Germany, we were finally on our way back, and this was during the mandatory UK self-isolation period (which I am currently on day 4 of, 10 days to go!) So we went through about 4 different windows, 2 of them were France border control, where they just checked our passports, asked if we have the documents the UK now requires and that’s it. Then when we entered UK border control, they checked the car, asked us to open the boot, checked all of our documents and made sure we understood that we had to quarantine for 14 days. So due to the new self-isolation for travellers in the UK rule, it was a lot more strict than on the way there, I even got a call the following day checking up on me seeing if I am home but for now that’s all!

 

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So finally, the restrictions of travelling during CO-VID19 are not that bad, other than the now self-isolation in the UK. You just have to be well prepared, safe, and follow the rules in place. Of course, it is not like travelling used to be, but for now, if you want to travel then this is some of the things you will have to abide by!

Stay safe,

Love, Kasia x

P.S. They didn’t even fix the car properly, the engine coolant is still leaking from somewhere and we had to keep filling it up on the way, on to the next mechanic I guess.