Well, here we are again. I feel like I’ve written quite a few ‘I quit my job’ blog posts, but maybe it’s only been two – so I’m not a serial job-quitter just yet, before you jump to conclusions.
Plus might I add, this isn’t a typical ‘I’ve quit my job and am starting a new position elsewhere’. Not quite.
I’ve quit my job but also left the city I was living in and am packing everything up into one backpack to go travelling for six months. Then I might move to Australia.
Related post: Why I Quit Two Jobs in Seven Months
There’s a lot to unpack in that previous paragraph, so let’s get into it.
Sorry, you’re doing what now?
I’m guessing if you’re reading this that you might not have listened to the podcast episode I published two days ago. I’ll link that here and add it in below in case you’d rather listen to my lovely northern Irish accent than read the below, but stick with me here too as I’ll probably divulge a little bit more.
Friday was my last day at work after two years of being the PR and Influencer girl for Gucci and Burberry makeup and fragrances. I’ve been back working for my placement company (which I documented back in 2017-2018 on here) for the past two years, loving every second of it.
Probably the toughest part of my decision about moving and going travelling, was the fact that I would have to leave my job. It might have been quite obvious from my social media that I lived and breathed my job and the brands I worked for. It still hurts writing this that I won’t be doing that job again (for a while at least).
As I write this, I’m sat in Belfast International Airport, waiting on my flight to London Stansted. I’m meeting my boyfriend in London before we begin the next chapter of our lives on Monday, travelling all across Asia.
What led to the decision?
I didn’t make it a secret that I didn’t love London. You’ll find podcast episodes and blog posts detailing the fact that London never felt like home to me and overall, people in London can be very rude and not helpful at all – completely different to what it’s like living in a small town where I’m from, or surprisingly, from what I experienced in New York.
Quite frankly, I was bored of London. London didn’t excite me and if I’m honest, it never really did. This time around living in London, I was thankful to be living with my boyfriend and also having a large friend group in the city, but there was always something in the back of my mind saying ‘there’s more to life than this’.
There’s more to life than working Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, commuting with the rest of the population of London at 7.30am feeling miserable and going through the motions of getting tubes and trains to the office, to fight onto those same trains on the way home again.
It probably didn’t help that I was following a lot of people on social media that were working from their laptops on an island, paying next to nothing for great weather, great food and a great lifestyle. While there I was in London, paying £2,000 for rent alone before paying bills, groceries, commuting costs and costs to live.
I started to question if it was all really worth it, just because I loved my job.
But what about New York?
If you’re a keen listener of the blog post, or have read one or two blog posts on here over the years then you’ll know that our main goal is to eventually end up in New York again.
We had hoped to be able to do this with one of our jobs, but himself’s work were cutting 10,000 people globally and it was very unlikely that a position was going to open up for me in our New York office.
We had to reassess and think, We could sit in London for another five years and nothing could change, so we’ll have missed out on the opportunity to live in Australia and Canada because himself would then be over the age of 35 which is the cut off for these places. Or, we could go now while he’s eligible, see the world and live in a few other places and then try again for New York.
Because, New York isn’t going anywhere, but we only have this time to relocate and see the world while we’re this young before we really settle into what we want to do in the future and hopefully settle down in New York for the long term.
So that’s what we’ve decided.
Let’s talk travel
You may have noticed in recent months that my social channels have changed slightly, and even blog posts on here, to focus more on travel content. We’ve been travelling quite a lot recently with some big trips to Bali, trips to America and short weekends in Europe.
I’ve been loving documenting everything and sharing my tips/advice and what we got up to in each place and now follow 95% travel creators on my social channels to be even further inspired.
I was very fortunate that a few of my Instagram Reels recently went a little viral and I’ve now amassed 10,000 followers on Instagram which blows my mind. I’ve had my little Orlagh Claire Instagram page for years now but it’s been used mostly as an everyday/what I’m up to page for friends and family.
But now that we’re going travelling across Asia, I can’t wait to share every minute of it and what we get up to and where we end up. We’ll be starting off in Sri Lanka (which is as far as we’ve got to with the planning) and hoping to travel to Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and also return to Bali.
What I’m hoping for most is that we slow travel. That we take the time to see each place but not rush around and burn ourselves out. I’m hoping to stay in one place for a week and two weeks (maybe even for a month) to work and catch up on content and recharge the batteries again.
I’ve purchased a kindle (believe it or not!!) so the reading will be continuing, but maybe not to the same extent as previous years. I’m not sure if I’ll be hitting 70 books this year, but we’ll see.
What was it you said about Australia?
I’m having to eat my words a little, but yes I did write a blog post at the end of 2022 where I said I could never see myself living in Australia. A year and a bit later, and I’m hoping to move there.
Related post: Why I’ll Never Move to Australia
It’s grown on me. Not the fact that I’ll walk down Bondi and bump into everyone from my hometown, but the thought of watching a sunrise on the beach when I want to, watching the sunset on the beach each evening and having a better quality of life.
Not to mention, brunches did basically originate in Australia, and we both know how much I like to brunch.
Plus, I do have a few friends that live there and life just really does seem better. So, we’ll see what happens in six months’ time.
The biggest dilemma we’re facing at the moment is whether to move to Sydney or Melbourne. We have friends in both, with one of my best friends being in Melbourne. A lot of people have said that Melbourne would suit us a lot better, but that the beaches and weather is better in Sydney.
Now, if you know me then you’ll know Melbourne would suit me better weather-wise since I burn to a crisp just glancing at the sun, but mornings and evenings spent on the beach with my kindle would be bliss.
The main concern for us is jobs. Are we going to find a job easier in Melbourne or in Sydney? Plus, there’s the housing crisis in Sydney. Would we find somewhere to live easier in Melbourne?
If you have any opinions, please let me know as I’m very open to hearing them since I’ve never actually visited Australia before.
Let the adventure begin
So that’s it. We’ve moved out of London for good, we’ve quit our jobs and we’re going travelling for the foreseeable.
I’d love if you follow along and keep up with us on this mad journey that I think we’re a little crazy to be doing but it’s both very exciting and very terrifying at the same time.
So, make sure to follow along on Instagram (@orlaghclaire), TikTok (@orlaghclaire) and on YouTube (@orlaghclaire).
I’ll also be writing a weekly newsletter about our travels that week, so if you’d like to sign up to receive that in your inbox every Sunday, you can sign up here.
Ahhh, let the adventure and next chapter commence!
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