After a number of months on a mini-tour of the UK, we’ve finally decided to pick a spot and settle down for a while.
Taking out a 12 month lease was a little daunting after packing up and moving around every four weeks, but I’m looking forward to spending an entire year in one spot and exploring the place as a whole.
I know, you’re probably as shocked as I am that I’m actually staying in the one place for a long period of time, but I’m looking at it as 12 months full of targets and goals that I can now really focus on going forward.
The past 6 months of travelling
Since coming back from New York, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. I can’t believe it’s coming up to a full year of being back home. But each day forward is a day closer to returning to New York – that’s how I’m looking at it anyway.
After coming back from New York, we found a flat in Liverpool and moved in a week after our two week quarantine was up, so I spent a whole three weeks back in Ireland before flying off again.
We spent six months in our large but cozy docks flat, where we spent a lot of time since the majority of those six months were spent in lockdown.
After our six month lease was up (our daily walk was becoming quite tedious at this point) we opted to see some new places since our jobs were both remote.
The week before our lease was up, I started a new job – who doesn’t like upheaving your whole life while also starting at a new company?!
From April we were on the road, spending four weeks in Edinburgh, travelling around Scotland, four weeks in Manchester, followed by four weeks in Cardiff, two weeks in a Welsh village and another four weeks in Manchester before finding our new home.
Obviously, we’ve moved to London
It was probably obvious that all of our travels were leading us in the direction of London, and that is exactly where we now find ourselves.
As much as I tried to avoid coming back to London any time soon, the draw of having such a large place to explore, the variety of restaurants and cuisines and our many friends that had recently flocked to the city – it was hard to say no.
You may remember that I spent a year living in London for my placement year and if you’ve been here that long then wow – hi! – but you might remember what a rollercoaster it was from attending things like the GQ Awards, London Fashion Week, the Black Panther premier, meeting lots of celebrities and let’s not forget all the beauty products I accumulated.
But as you can imagine, this time around in London will probably be nothing at all like my first time.
I’m in a new job, living out in East London near to Canary Wharf and am no longer doe-eyed in the big new city.
What do the next 12 months have in store
I’m looking at these next 12 months as 12 months of goals. I’ve made a list of things I want to achieve in the next 12 months and how I’m going to achieve them.
Starting with health/fitness, since we’ve been moving around for the last six months and gyms were closed in Liverpool, I haven’t stepped foot in a gym in quite a long time.
Luckily, we have a gym, pool and spa facilities in our apartment building which means I have zero excuse not to start going to the gym/take up swimming again. So far this week I’ve been swimming and been to the gym three mornings in a row, waking at 6.30am.
I can tell you that my body is definitely feeling the effects of not having gone to a gym in a long time, and I’m moving around like a 90 year old. But we’re forcing the habit so that it sticks.
We’re cooking more meals in the flat, limiting takeaway coffees (which is extremely difficult when we have a gorgeous coffee shop and restaurant on the ground floor of the building) and experimenting more with new meals.
However, the brunches will continue and I’m still on the hunt for the best avo toast in London – and I can’t walk through Chinatown and not buy dumplings, so we’ll definitely not be limiting eating out on the weekends when we’re exploring the city.
You might remember that I created a London Bucket List back when I was on my placement year and there were a few things that I didn’t manage to tick off.
I do plan to update it for this year and already we’ve got a few things booked in the calendar like the Harry Potter Studios tour, six West End shows booked already (lol), a few concerts and we’re also going to see some American Football in October which I’m very excited about!
All in all, I have a lot planned for the next 12 months and that’s just a snippet of what I’ve got in the pipeline. I’m planning to record/vlog parts of our time in London to look back on in the future and I may even come back with the monthly blog posts again so I can really look back at my time in London in years to come.
So even though I’ve been moving location so many times, the blog’s staying and continuing!
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