Thoroughly modern millennial

Tag: Lifestyle & Travel

  • Travels | Off to India

    Travels | Off to India

    Packing my bags for an adventure!

    I’ve been teasing this but here’s the holding post, I’m off to India for the next two weeks for a very out of my comfort-zone holiday with my housemates. We’ve got an absolutely packed schedule starting off in the South of India, careering through Kerala and Goa before making our way North to the Golden Triangle. In two weeks. (Yikes).

    TMM will not be quiet whilst I’m gone. A few lovely writers will be taking over the blog over the next few weeks. Some are new faces, some writers you’ll recognise but I can guarantee the blog posts are fabulous.

    WiFi and Internet access may be spotty, but do keep up with my antics on Twitter and Instagram (possibly Snapchat, but we’ll see).

    And I’ll see you lovely lot when i’m back! Hopefully with lots of travel posts and photos to share with you.

    Ria Xx

  • What Online Dating Has Taught Me

    What Online Dating Has Taught Me

    *just one of the few ‘charming’ messages I get online

    Happy Tinder-versary to me! It’s been just about a year since one fateful night when my housemates forced me to download the app. I’ve had a mix of good, bad and just plain embarrassing experiences thanks to it and, yes, to be clear, I am still unfortunately single as an outcome. But for all the ridiculousness of it I’ve definitely learnt a lot about myself, what I want/like out of a guy and how to navigate the Millennial online dating minefield.

    So as we’re on the run up to Valentine’s Day (shudders) here’s a few amusing, harmless tidbits I thought I’d share both from my own experiences and stories from friends who’ve also waded into online dating.

    You may find a few familiar faces:

    From old friends (who I always screenshot for blackmail reasons), to classmates from school, college and Uni and old flames/crushes *shudders*, Tinder can be awash with hilarious and bad memories. It’s also amusing to swipe past minor celebs (i.e. indie musicians and YouTubers) and equally good for the ego when you actually match with one of them (Claim to fame. Totally still matched with Noah Robbins on Tinder. Hit me up bro!).

    People are super un-original:

    You like to travel and meet new people? Wow. You’re with your ‘lads’ in your profile picture? Or on your ‘gap yah’? Or you’re skiing? You said ‘hi’ or ‘hey’. *snooooooze* C’mon! Put a little effort into this.

    Men DO NOT know how to take good selfies:

    Where are your angles at bro? Why do guys stand two feet away from a camera and use it as their ONLY profile picture? Or why on Earth would you just have a photo of your car on your profile. Are you an inanimate object? Compensating for something?

    You shouldn’t feel guilty about talking to more than one guy at a time:

    Learnt this one hard way, potentially missed out on meeting some great guys because I was hung up on being a monogamous dater. If that’s your vibe, that’s cool, but I think just talking to more than one person in the early stages is totally fine. I know friends who’ve ended up being good mates with guys from online dating simply because of this. Also – not to knock your self esteem down a notch – do you think you’re the only person they’re talking to right there and then? I know people who’ve matched with the same person and have received exactly the same message within 2 minutes.

    Most people on ‘certain apps’ are after one thing:

    But let’s be real don’t tell me you aren’t on Tinder for wholly innocent reasons either. As long as you’re all consensual, safe and comfortable then there shouldn’t be any shame in this. Go forth and multiply (if you want)

    The weirder, witter and straight to the point the better:

    A generic ‘Hi’ or ‘Hey Ria’ ain’t gonna cut it bro, unless you literally look like Chris Hemsworth or Darren Criss. I like a good opener, or something that indicates you’ve read something in my bio. Also a sucker for a good gif usage – in any context tbh. ‘DTF’ ain’t gonna cut it either, sorry lads.

    I totally have a type…:

    To the point where my housemate has swiped left and right for me, cause apparently my tastes are that frigging obtuse. If you follow who my fave celeb men are you can probably guess what that type is.

    Ghosting / Benching / Breadcrumbing* are so very real:

    And I haven’t quite worked out which one is worse in my head. Not to mention the fact I’ve totally done all of the above to guys myself (my bad). In some ways tech has made dating even tougher for us. Read receipts, those little ‘writing’ dots on messenger, and just plain social media is in itself the modern day equivalent of waiting by the phone or changing your MSN status to something they like. *I’ve linked all of those words if you have no idea what I’m on about.

    At the end of the day it’s just a bit of fun:

    As far as matters of the heart are concerned, getting in too deep with Tinder matches is probably not the road to true love. It can be and I’ve seen plenty of friends triumph into relationships off the back of Tinder dates, but for the most part I’m trying to not get too serious about it, after all dating should be silly, a bit ridic and give you plenty of stories to tell over a couple of glasses of wine until you find ‘the one’, right?

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    Tell me your online or offline dating woes (or triumphs) in the comments below!

    Ria Xx

  • Re-Resolutions | Reworking your goals after January

    Re-Resolutions | Reworking your goals after January

    Congrats you made it to February fam. How are those resolutions coming on? Crap?

    Join the club.

    Despite the enthusiasm and renewed sense of ‘LET’S DO THIS’ I always get in January, I, like everyone around me kinda gives up around mid-month. This January has been particularly tough, so I don’t blame anyone for just saying ‘sod it’ with their resolutions – the World is burning anyway, am I right? But thinking generally, 2017 aside, the ‘New Year, New Me’ rush can get a bit too much. We’re getting new calendars and diaries, we’ve overindulged over Christmas or had time away from ‘normal’ life to reflect on the year gone by. There’s so much pressure to change right there and then.

    The thing is, I think we’re all kidding ourselves thinking we’re actually ready to change in January. Because January sucks, man. We’re overly bloated, we’re (likely) skint, and we’re so so tired from the manic-ness of December.

    So how about starting afresh now? In February.

    Think about it. I’m gonna make an educated guess that you have a pretty good idea what you’re 2017 is looking like right now. Whether that be job changes or relationship changes; choosing to travel, or start school again, or have a family, or buy a house; or maybe you know you’ll be heading to college in September, or graduating come July. You create that outline of the next 12 months in your head within the first few weeks of the year. It’s takes you a while, it doesn’t hit you on January 1st.

    For me this means taking a long hard look at my ‘balance’ goal and re-prioritising what exactly I want to balance in light of anything that’s now up and coming in 2017.

    So now we’ve popped our head over the proverbial parapet of 2017, now is the perfect time to reevaluate what you’re aiming for. Any why stop at February? Life does change and this consistent approach to stepping back and re-evaluating your goals can be useful at any point in the year.

     

    — — —

    Let me know how your 2017 goals have changed already.

    Are you on track? Or will you need a reset too?

    Ria Xx