Fridaaaayyy!!

(via)

Oh man. What a week. Isn't it funny how time goes so slowly when you know that holidays are just around the corner? I swear, these have been the longest days ever.

But, at last, it's the weekend!

And added bonus, I'm catching up with friends for my official Going Away drinks. Brace yourself Melbourne. The ladies are out.

via

It's approximately 7 hours before we can officially pop the sparkling, so let's kill a little time with:

Friday love!

Link love:
So. Writing a book may not be as simple as I'd hoped.
Does anyone else feel like they're drifting?
Helen Mirren wins. Again.
This post from Girls Gone Child made my heart swell. Especially this "Age puts us in the audience when we wish we were on stage. Not because we want to be seen but because we miss dancing".
Check out the origin of the word "nice". See! I told you it was a four letter word!
This made me laugh. Awesome tip I learned from Joanna? When you're high-fiving, look at the other person's elbow. It works every time (trust me, whenever I get drunk, it's the first party trick I like to show off).
Want to see what your twitter looks like in Gansta style? Visit Gizoogle and search for your twitter name.
My sister Lou sent me a picture from Daily Odd Compliment the other day and now I am obsessed.
Abandoned places. Eerily beautiful.
One of my favourite Judy Bloom books is being made into a movie. DON'T RUIN IT HOLLYWOOD.
6 things wrong with that Dove ad. 
59 Reasons we're going to miss The Office. Made me kinda misty.

Handsome Men doing Handsome Things:

Jerry sticks it to Abercrombie:

George Takai has a genius response or two to those against same-sex marriage:

Zach has a beautiful date:

And I thought my boyfriend looked cute playing basketball:

And, as always, don't forget our Friday tune!

I'm super happy that it's the weekend of course, but I'm trying hard not to think about the fact that this is my last weekend in Melbourne. Just between you and I, I'm already a little homesick. 

Have a wonderful weekend out there.

b.

Things I love Thursday!

We love dips in the ocean! (via)

It's only a week and two days until I head to Canada (am I bragging again? Sorry.)!

While I'm beyond excited to see my boyfriend, I'm a little nervous about stepping into summer (and tiny bikinis) after avoiding the gym for a few weeks and starting the winter hibernation process. So no time like the present, it's time to get summer (and boyfriend) ready!

Something I want:

Moroccan Oil. Available at myhaircare.com ($52.50)

My hair is a disgrace right now. Someone complimented me today, wondering if I'd coloured it. But...um...no. It was just so oily and in need of a cut that it looked darker.

Fortunately for me, my gorgeous flatmate is a hairdresser, so I've booked in for her to give it a tidy up and, to keep it looking shiny and at it's best, it's time to invest in some Moroccan Oil. Joy and Eva swear by this and as they both have gorgeous tresses I'm going to follow their lead.

Something I need:

Pure Bronze. Available at Price Attack ($27)

We all know by now that laying around in the sun, frying our skin, is for losers. Right? Right.

But I am so pale that to look at me in a bikini is to risk serious eye injury. The glare is that bad. So time to fake bake!

Pure Bronze is the best fake tanner I've ever used. You can slop it on as messily as you like and it won't streak. Sleep in it for best results - but be warned, it will mark your sheets and possibly force your boyfriend from the bed (Bill usually evacuates to sleep in the spare room). The good news is that it washes out and your boyfriend will forgive you when he beholds your beautiful (and totally natural) looking tan. 

Something to wear:

1. Rodanthe colourblock one piece. Available at Antropologie ($98) 2. Summer strawhat. Available at J Crew ($57.80) 3. Solange dress. Available at Steven Alan ($225) 4. Hot pink bikini. Available at Topshop ($50) 5. Joie sandal. Available at ShopBop ($132.75)

Once my hair is shiny and my body bronzed, it'll be time to hit the beach! Although I'm not normally into the one piece, I'm loving the retro look and what better way to celebrate the sun that with a touch of neon?

And of course, don't forget to cover up with a hat!

Something to read:

1. Paper Towns. Available at Amazon ($8.99) 2. Looking for Alaska. Available at Amazon ($6.35) 3. An Abundance of Katherines. Available at Amazon ($8.99)

What's left to do once I'm summer-ready and bikini clad? Read on the beach of course! Given my newly discovered crush, I think it's time I caught up on all of John Green's books. Let's hope they don't have quite the same effect on me as The Fault in Our Stars - a sobbing woman on the beach is hardly the recipe for summer fun.

Happy Things I love Thursday everyone! What are you loving today?

b.

In which the John Green love affair continues...

The irony of using this particular quote from someone I have a crush on is not lost on me. [via]

Who's your celebrity crush?

As regular readers of The Google Year will know, I now have quite the thing for Tom Hardy. I mean, come on, how could you not.

But there's been a recent new entry that's giving Tom a run for his money.

 

You know how I've been waxing lyrical about how much I love The Fault in our Stars and John Green? Well, he's officially added to my Top 3 Very Rad and Awesomely Nerdy Men who I would like to run away with if they didn't have a wife and children (yes, this list exists).

Why? 

Well there's this commencement address at Butler University:

Let me submit to you that this is the actual definition of a good life. You want to be the kind of person who other people—people who may not even born yet—will think about in their own silences years from now at their own commencements. I am going to hazard a guess that relatively few of us closed our eyes and thought of all the work and love that Selena Gomez or Justin Bieber put into making this moment possible for us. We may be taught that the people to admire and emulate are actors and musicians and sports heroes and professionally famous people, but when we look at the people who have helped us, the people who actually change actual lives, relatively few of them are publicly celebrated. We do not think of the money they had, but of their generosity. We do not think of how beautiful or powerful they were, but how willing they were to sacrifice for us—so willing, at times, that we might not have even noticed that they were making sacrifices.

And this very accurate and insightful review of the Twilight Saga:

This very good advice about love and romance (it's true boys. The tongue is just like a Navy Seal):

And he loves nerds:

Speaking of, he's has a blog aptly titled Nerdfighters, and set up a charity with his brother Hank called the Project for Awesome, in which YouTube users take two days to create videos promoting charities of their choice. Last year the project raised over $480,000 for charity.

Swoon. 

Watch out Tom. The title of Bea's Most Wanted is officially up for grabs.

Who's on your list?  A friend of mine has a weird attraction to Tom Selleck in Three Men and a Baby. I am appropriately concerned.

b.

Beauty (and the eternal search for the perfect lipstick)

Oh Elvis! [via]

Today I'm over at Joy and Eva's to talk beauty.

Come on by for a visit!

b.

Into every generation a Slayer is born...

10 years. 10 years since the end of a beautiful relationship.

10 years since Buffy and the Scoobies left us.

If you're too cool to understand what I'm talking about, it's 10 years today since Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended.

You might think it was just a television show. You would be wrong.

To me (the girl nicknamed Slayer by a certain old work friend) Buffy was so much more. Friendship, love, strength, bravery, kick-ass women, the best one-liners in television - that show had it all. There's a reason you can study the series at university, you know.

To this day my sister Lou and I regularly reference those beloved characters in our lives. In fact, this was pretty much the conversation we had when my boyfriend and I got back together:

"Bill is totally your Angel. You have a love that will never die. And now, you are no longer cookie dough."
"Really? I thought First Love was my Angel?"
"No. He was definitely your Riley."
"Riley was quite hot. I never got the anti-Riley movement. What was so wrong with Riley?!"
"Nothing! But First Love, like Riley, was only appropriate for your wild university years."
"Five by Five".
"Does anyone actually know what that means?"

When I heard news that the show was ending I was devastated. I arranged to fly to Sydney just for the night, to be by Lou's side so that we could share our grief and the final episode together. We laughed, we wept, we reminisced, we sent her husband to bed BECAUSE HE TALKED TOO MUCH AND THERE IS NO TALKING IN BUFFY NOT EVEN IN THE COMMERCIAL BREAKS.

Here's just a few of our favourite memories:*

Becoming Part II. The love story to end all love stories. Oh Angel. 

The Gift. "The hardest thing in this world"...

The Body. Remember this one? It's probably my favourite. The episode had no soundtrack and was heart-wrenching. This is the moment that Anya cracked my little heart.

Hush. The entire episode was silent. Scariest episode of television ever. 

Once more with feeling. Best. Musical. Episode. Ever. 

   
Touched. My sister and I watched this speech on repeat. Over and over. The man that says this to me will be the man I marry. 

Chosen. The battle that ended it all. I'm really annoyed that I couldn't find a better edit of this but my sister and I both let out a little sob as girls all over the world became slayers. "Can't stand up? Will stand up". 

 

Grr. Argh. 

Thanks for the memories (and the genius writing, Joss).

Secretly I hope they never stop asking that question because we like the women you write very much.

What was your favourite episode? 

 

 b.

*I know that my sister will point out that I forgot the episode that I make her watch pretty much every time we are together. So I will take this opportunity to remind her that "Perfect Day" actually featured in Angel (as you should well know LOU!). "I'll never forget, I'll never forget."