The English Country life.

So in the spirit of keeping you all up to date with everything that I have been up to of late, as promised, I thought I would take this cold English day to listen to tunes, sit on the window sill and tell you all about my new dwellings in the English countryside.

So, as most of you know by now, I decided to take up both and job and residence at a live in pub job in Chilgrove, just at the foot hills of the South Downs National Park. When I first found the job advertised online, I was invited to come down and see the place before taking the job as they wanted to know it was in fact something I wanted. They put me up in one of the hotel rooms that the pub has, and I got to spend the afternoon relaxing in the claw foot bath tub, reading Francesca Lia Block tales that I had read so many times before, and wandering the local area.

The ‘town’ of Chilgrove is about 3 hours walk along the road to the nearest town that has shopping and a train station, or alternatively a 10-18 pound taxi ride away. So it is safe to say that I am certainly far away from everyone. This appealed to me, but at the time of deciding, I was conflicted about whether or not I wanted to stay in Scotland or take this opportunity in the countryside. I felt like I hadn’t given Scotland the go it deserved, however was itching to be moving again. I felt like I was in the “waiting place” and needed to be back out there earning some money to continue my travelling dreams, and a live in pub job certainly gave me that.

The people I had met on this day were super lovely, and it turns out that we have become good friends since then. But ultimately the biggest decision making factor for me was on a walk, I found my own little secret hiding spot in amongst the beautiful scenery. This spot felt…for lack of a better term…right. I felt like this was where I was supposed to be, so I took the job.

…and here I am a month later.

It is a nice place to work, it certainly gets busy, but I have enjoyed getting to know everyone. The staff housing is old converted stables and really quite comfortable. I live with some pretty excellent human beings who enjoy socialising, and share a room with a delightful Spanish girl who shares my passion for photography, and a similar sense of humour. She is teaching me some spanish and I am helping with her English, but it means that there are always some wonderful translation errors that cause us to fall into fits of giggles.

Being so far out in the country means I rarely get phone reception or wifi unless I connect at work (and I try not to go there when it is my days off…protecting my stability of mind, keeping both as separate as possible) however this doesn’t always work out so well when I want to Skype home, so I am there most days either working or stopping in. It is a cosy place to be though…

Country life also means that my closest neighbour is a paddock with horses, which makes my heart happy. I have a new ginger friend who see’s me coming home from work, or walking the ten minutes to work, and follows me along the fence line. I now have to budget into my groceries a bag of carrots purely for this new friend of mine. 

Being surrounded by horses I have this real urge to go riding sometime soon. I have a yearning to reach a gallop, feel the wind whip through my hair and a sense of freedom that I have long since felt. The last time I had that sense was in South America, and like a drug I need my need my next fix.

Needless to say, I am more settled than I have been for a while. As settled as a gypsy can be anyway.

Until next time my lovelies,

B xo

A long overdue update of the gypsy life

Hey friends, I realise that it has been epicly long since I last got into contact with you all. For this I greatly apologise….

You know, I find that I seem to be greatly apologising for this quite regularly… so let’s come to terms with sometimes it is going to be few and far between with my blog posts whilst I sort through the madness and exhilaration that is living overseas.

Firstly since I last spoke to you I have been to Oktoberfest, Prague (my heart is currently still fluttering around here seeking out as much beauty as the city can offer), Hamburg, back home to Australia for my sisters wedding, back to the UK where I had planned to move out of London, and yet found myself back in London working in the home where Oscar Wilde used to live, seeking out his ghost, frolicking in a winter wonderland with mulled wine in hand, exploring the Scottish Highlands under a blanket of snow, to Switzerland for a white Christmas and to bring in the new year, to be taken in by friends in Glasgow to now living the country life in Sussex in the foothills of the South Downs National Park after a several day detour to Iceland.

… So I think it is safe to say that it has been an epic one since I last wrote. 

As amazing as it all sounds (and IT IS just as amazing as it sounds) I have had periods of restlessness with my heart still dreaming, my bank account sticking its tongue out at me, and wondering how I can possibly fit in everything I want into a short life. It has been a period of self discovery for me to calm down, to try new things and to experience everything whilst I am in one spot. Not an easy thing for me when my mind is always racing with possibilities and day dreams. If I don’t learn to quieten it from time to time, I may just miss the things the world offers up to me.

So, I have tried new things, I have stepped out of my comfort bubble, saying yes to things that life offers up. 

Currently I am living in the country with some pretty awesome people working long weeks, replenishing my bank account and when possible going to explore the national park which I now reside in.

As for the future of this wandering gypsy, I can now say that this year is shaping up to being an amazing one following the incredible journey of last year. I am going to Cyprus in just over two weeks, my Sally will come to visit me later in the year and we want to road trip around Ireland, I have just accepted a position to volunteer teaching children in the slums of Dehli, India for a month later in the year also, and am sailing Croatia too. And to fill in the times in-between these great adventures I will be seeing Romeo and Juliet performed at the Globe Theatre in London, and just replenishing the old bank account to continue on forward.

I know I still want to see everything the world has to offer, but I also know you need to work hard to get there.

Until next time my lovelies…

Love B xo

a late update of past events.

Hey Hey Peeps!

Ready for a new update? I bet you are just itching for one and jumping up and down with excitement!...or possibly not, what do I know?

So since I left you last a few weeks ago, I have had an eventful few weeks.

My weekend involved a house party to say goodbye to my friend Dani's flat as she was moving house. This night in itself was incredibly eventful. I am sad to say there are many moments of this night that I do not remember... although I feel this qualifies it as an awesome one.

The night started with wine and pimms, then drinking games of drinking every time the police sang "roxanne" or "turn on the red light". Wine is an incredibly poor choice of drink for this game, as you can not skull that much wine in that short of time. OUCH!

The night progressed to learning to play guitar whilst sitting on the balcony edge (thankfully I eventually had the good sense to get down the more I drank... could not have ended well I am sure of it)...plus it is hard to learn much guitar when you are slightly intoxicated. I am sure I was rocking it for that short time. I left this to the boys to continue to play, as my skills weren't up to snuff. Sad really...

We played more drinking games inside, I played with the cat, spouted my love to everyone I saw...and the next thing I remember is police knocking on the door, accusing us of having drugs, having a chat to the policeman who looked incredibly bored, the police leaving and us heading home. 

Now the next day whilst hugging the toilet and being a general sad panda (thank you emma for trying to take photos of me and my death like state...what are friends for ey? :P ) I did get some updates on what else occurred during the night thanks to photographic evidence and story telling by others... so let me take you on a tale of my blank moments...

During the black out, Dani provided bites of vegemite sandwiches, Mike provided cocktails using up every drop of alcohol in the house, Dani suggested a dance party on the couch (in which i proceeded to dance on for about an hour) the boys hulked out and threw chairs over the balcony (which is why the police ended up rocking up) and we had a lights out dance party.

Apparently our night ended with me turning to Emma in a child like way saying "Emma... I need to go home now", and Emma and I frolicked our way to the bus stop, chatted to other party goers as we went by, and bolting for the bus...passing out on the bus, getting off at the wrong stop and walking home...
AND it turns out this is how the toilet hugging and migraine occurred. I did fix the problem with sleep and gravy coated chips later in the evening though... WIN!
So after a few days recovery, Emma, Aoife and I met under Tower bridge at the outdoor cinemas. I love these things that London puts on that are free! As I watched the sunset over tower bridge and the lights of the bridge come on, I had my first ever viewing of an Indiana Jones movie (I know...slow on the uptake!)

We meandered our way through London at night (I love this city during the night) and got to see the bridge open up to let through passing boats before finally made our way home to our nice comfy warm beds.

Dinner with Dani

That weekend Emily, Emma and I headed into Camden Markets again to meander through the stalls in search of a backpack for Emma, a beanie for Emily and some speakers for me. We stopped in at this delicious vegan coffee shop called 'Cookies and Scream'. This place is absolutely delicious, and you would not know that it was soy products. The two dairy intolerant people that I went to the markets with were definitely enthusiastic by this. We had peanut butter and chocolate cookies and salted caramel/brownie thick shakes…hello diabetes!

That evening we prepared ourselves for a fiesta, yes you heard correctly, A FIESTA! All inclusive with margaritas and moustaches. What better way for me to say goodbye to London than with some tequila-y goodness whilst rocking a mo? Trick question, there is no better way!

Obviously having no living room or back yard...or any kind of communal space, the party occured in our bedroom (not THAT kind of party!) and needless to say, many margarita's were had...and nachos...and silly pictures!

We left the house later in the evening to continue the party (as the lady living below us has dementia, and we didn't want to freak her out by being too loud all night). We headed into Shoreditch to continue our fiesta (with sombrero in tow, of course.) 

We headed to 'the corner shop' to get our boogy on, and I was introduced to some kind of delicious drink that tasted like apple pie... I can't for the life of me remember what it is called, but I plan to find out again!
Needless to say, there was dancing, and Emma and I had a 'le thrust' off 

I am sure you are wondering about this new dance craze the ‘le thrust’. Basically it involves putting on an incredibly seedy expression, head tilted down, eyes looking up, creepy pout….keeping your upper body still and thrusting your hips ….sexy right? Hahaha.

You know that you have been friends too long when you can do this towards each other and not break seedy character by laughing!

Luckily we bounced back a lot better the following day, and Emma and I decided to get our tourist on by heading to Abbey Road. Our intentions were to get the typical ‘walk the zebra crossing’ photo, but it turns out there are a lot of people there, and a lot of cars trying to drive over the zebra crossing, who really don’t appreciate people playing musical statues on the road.
We did get our pictures there anyway, and also wrote on the wall outside of the recording studios. We then headed back down to London Bridge for a late lunch and for some intense people watching, finishing the day with the good old Sunday pub housemate dinner.



Love B xo

a colourful arty London for the win!

Greetings again beautiful people!

Well, here we are again, ready for updates on the adventures that I am having in England at the moment.

Last time I left you it was just after Ally’s birthday, and it has definitely been an eventful August since then.

For the next few days following Ally’s birthday, things were pretty chilled out, which was nice (have to recover from the epic pub crawling!). I spent the week at work, and when Thursday rolled around I had the day off and went thrift shopping (what what – popping tags!) and found myself in a op shop “Frozen” sing along session, with the workers belting out Disney tunes. AMAZING. I searched through mountains of awesome clothes (that even at cheap prices, I can’t afford them thanks to London eating my money). I did find a floral skirt which I bought and headed back home for a little R&R.

Later in the evening Ally and I headed into the city centre for another pub night. Not quite a pub crawl, but just a few casual drinks with the working holiday club. The bar was actually really cool and reminded me a lot of Brunswick street rooftop bars back in Melbourne. So under twinkling fairylights and colourful flags we watched the sunset over London, whilst sipping on our Pimms… perfect night out. To make it even better, there was a competition of playing heads or tails to win several tours of Ireland and Scotland. After thinning the crowd by consistently picking heads, I was crowned winner of the world (or just one of two winners of heads or tails) and won myself a Haggis tour of Scotland. I should point out that the tour company is called Haggis, and it isn’t a tour where you go around eating Haggis (nope, I refuse to eat Haggis). So excitedly I headed home, skipping through the streets with my winnings (3 days through Isle of Skye and Loch Ness…HELLS YEAH!) and slept the sleep of champions :) BOO YA!

The weekend was pretty quiet for me, as all but one of my housemates was out travelling the globe, so I took the opportunity to be particularly lazy. I took the opportunity of having the house to myself at times to sing at the top of my lungs, and to have 5 hour long skype calls.

As Sunday rolled around, I breathed in deep and was greeted by the beautiful smell of rain :) I took the opportunity to relish in my love of rain and had a frolic before heading out to meet up with some of my South American travel companions, having coffee and scones in a 5 level book shop (hello happy days!). I always love catching up with Aoife, Corry and Tim as there are always many laughs. We strolled around London looking for decent coffee following the coffee tube map, and found ourselves in little alleyways making travel plans and reminiscing on amazing times in South America.

We made one last stop for the day and that was at a pub for a pint before heading our separate ways for the evening.

Over the next few days I took myself on several dates with London. Having the days off gave me a fantastic opportunity to explore some more of this wonderful city. I headed back to the book store looking through travel books, found second hand book stores in Notting Hill, tried food from Jamie Olivers café and meandered some more through the streets of London.

I took myself on the Wednesday on the most epic date of London, one that no guy could have replicated. It started on a rainy day where I had a picnic in Trafalgar square, and headed into the National Gallery. I perused through some amazing paintings, it is honestly incredible how well preserved and how detailed some old paintings are. I spent a couple of hours meandering through the grand halls, seeing original Van Gogh’s and renaissance art work. I definitely urge you all to go check out the gallery, it is quite beautiful and to make it even more appealing, it is free! So there is absolutely no excuse not to see original works by amazing artists.

Once leaving the gallery I continued to meander through the streets of London in cute little trinket stores, buying decent coffee from quaint coffee shops, and stumbling upon a 3 level book store dedicated solely to travel and adventures. I am pretty sure this is what heaven is. It was one of those amazing days where nothing could spoil the happy mood I was in, in love with the world and the city of London. I even managed to find a magazine with articles on Daniel Radcliffe, and sat in the park reading and watching people do lunch time yoga routines. It was really an awesome day, not even having to go to work that evening could put me in a bad mood.
I stopped in a second hand book store near Notting Hill, found some beautiful old books, perfect for presents and made my way to work. Huzzah!

The following day I caught up with one of my favourite Kiwi’s for lunch in Shoreditch. We caught up on travel and plans before we got rained out and had to move from our little outdoor table. We wandered to a nearby art gallery and made our way through the exhibits. I was having a serious art out week here in London in hipster-ville and it was awesome :) 

We stopped for coffee, before strolling back through the rain (Corry hadn’t brought his tap shoes sadly, so no tap dancing in the rain for us!) before I had to head back to work for that evening.

That weekend, on Saturday morning, Emma and I had a massive clean fest, scrubbing the kitchen and the bathroom to pristine conditions, and then my house mates and I had a serious lazy fest and stayed in on Saturday night with Buffy and popcorn and wine. There may have also been a PJ dance party happening… I can neither confirm nor deny this, except to say it was awesome. Sometimes you just need a good night in, with a good bottle of wine, and copious amounts of popcorn…and chocolate…
Either way we were buzzed enough before falling asleep to escort another house mate to the local ‘off license’ to buy some food before finally crashing.

Sunday started as a lazy day before heading out to meet a friend in the evening. It is always nice having people come visit from Australia, and one of my work colleagues was passing through town, which was awesome. We took her out for our traditional Sunday pub dinner, catching up on clients and travel plans over a pint.

Wednesday at work, I met a guy who asked for my phone number and usually I don’t give this out and make up some excuse, but this time I thought I would do something different, he seemed nice enough and I would give it a go.. unfortunately within the next 3 hours I had 5 missed calls and text messages, 2 missed calls and 3 texts in a 5 minute period on my walk home from work. Needless to say I realised what a creeper he was turning out to be. So ignoring his calls, hoping he would get the hint, I decided to go out to catch up with some old friends from Jay Jays in Aus. I met Dani and Ben out by London Bridge and headed to German Beer Halls.

Ofcourse when you decide that you are going out for just one drink, you get a stein! It is still then technically only one drink ;) As I have said before in this blog, I absolutely love catching up with old friends and especially whilst training for Oktoberfest – get those steins into ya!

I did notice that I had another 4 missed calls that night, and by the next day I had a total of 20 missed calls with voice messages and text messages. By this stage I was getting really frustrated that he kept calling so I told him to stop calling, I wasn’t interested and it was too much…So he called to apologise to my voice mail.

The next day I got a text saying “sorry for yesterday, call me next week? ;)”… it was clear all my telling him to bugger off was not getting through, so instead I opted for telling him that I was leaving London…turns out this worked! Huzzah! But seriously, not sure why people think that this is the correct way to get a girls attention… instead we just think “stalker!”

So after shaking off my stalker on Thursday night we headed to another random pub Thursday (where I won my tour last time!)…which happened to be in someones back yard instead this time…It was actually a really good night out at a house party, and a good way to unwind. I even met someone who went to the same high school as me years before hand.

It is definitely crazy to meet someone who knows the area you grew up, and even shared some of the same teachers as you, but years before hand! We drank amazing espresso martini’s and chatted away with all the guests and had an awesome time, before eventually going to bed around 2am (all ready for work the next day..thankfully I didn’t start until 5pm, so had a nice sleep in!)

This past weekend was definitely an eventful and fun one! Having celebrated our 3 months in London anniversary, Emma and I met up with our ex housemate Ally at the movies to see the most amazing Daniel Radcliffe Rom Com “What if”. Seriously a great movie, and I definitely recommend that you go and see it! It had been ages since I had been to the movies, so even that was awesome to get out of the house and do. We then did our weekly shop at Tesco’s and I headed back into the city to see the incredible Noel Fielding live in his comedy show. Those of you who are Mighty Boosh fans will know how hilariously random Noel Fielding is, and with his jokes and songs about being made of milk, being a chicken man, and finding his wife in bed with a triangle will know just how he did not disappoint with his randomness…. HILARIOUS! His brother Mike Fielding was also involved, as was cameo’s by the delightful moon from the Boosh. Needless to say the night was full of much laughter…and then beer back at the german beer halls! Gotta keep that training going ;)

Emily and I met with Emma for some more drinks at the German beer halls, and watched a German brass band play teenage dirtbag, karma chameleon and other awesome songs, not traditional herd by a traditional German band.

The next day was the beginning of the Notting Hill Carnival, supposedly the ‘family day’. We headed in with our housemates to Notting Hill where all of the roads were closed off in the surrounding areas. Already by midday there were thousands of people around, stopping to dance, and the carnival parade had started through the streets, with bright colours. For those who don’t know, the carnival is celebrating the Caribbean culture here in London, and is absolutely massive. Along with the parade you can get Caribbean food everywhere you look, music is booming out of massive speakers and stages, and everywhere you look people are dancing. 

We drank from pineapples, exhibited our beautiful reggae dance moves and accidentally breathed in second hand wacky tobaccy smoke. Let’s be honest, you can’t go anywhere in Carnival without smelling and seeing people light up beside you, and therefore have your oxygen tainted with weed. Thankfully it is nowhere near enough to affect you as you walk through the crowds. Bright confetti was thrown with each piece of confetti having writing on it saying things like “I appreciate you” and “you are beautiful to me”. I think it is a great idea for confetti!

The following day I headed in to work, knowing that Carnival would still be booming on the public holiday, however did not think it would be so hectic due to the rain….boy was I wrong!! They had closed off my normal route to work, so I had to mosey my way through the entire carnival, and follow the parade just to find my way to work. The streets were packed much more than the day before, of people moshing in the rain, and there were no kids in sight. I had to squeeze my way through people, and when I arrived in front of my work building, there were hundreds of people moshing to the sound stage that was set up directly in front. I had to squish my way through them into the building where music was booming outside. It was actually awesome to be able to partake in the party, whilst being dry and getting paid for it. It also meant that because there was a gate up around the building, there was room to stand and enjoy the festivities without being crushed by all the party-goers… SCORE!!

So this brings us to today…where I had a lovely London date day catching up with more work friends from Melbourne. I got to catch up with Czenia for lunch in Covent Gardens, mosey through second hand book shops (I have an addiction… but I got an old Shakespeare complete works for 50p! woo!) and coffee/brownies and Jamie Olivers restaurant. Om nom nom nom…..

DELIGHT!!!!

Until next time my dears,
B xoxo

birthday pub crawls and freebies!

Why Hello there all you out in the bloggersphere,

I hope you are all doing well, as promised, I am working on keeping you more up to date on my adventures. Since I last left you I had given you a brief overview of my travels and adventures in London, after being incredibly slack during my previous adventures. 

SO, In the last two weeks I have been working mostly… sucks really, but hey it means I can afford to eat and sleep somewhere – bonus in my books!
I am currently working as a temp receptionist in international student accommodation, I have been here for about a month and so far I am enjoying it, mostly I am enjoying coming home at the end of the day and not having to think about work. It is very different from the social work in Australia that I was doing where I would come home each night and never be able to switch my brain off worrying about the kids I worked with. So now I can do that – the beauty of the temp worker, I have no real obligations to stress further than that day. Mostly I have been working night shifts from 5-10pm, with the occasional day thrown in for good measure. The other part of it that I am enjoying is that I am getting to talk to students from all over the world, and hear some pretty ridiculously awesome accents. 

Most of the students here during the summer most of the students here are studying Shakespeare at a drama school, so I get to chat to my hearts content to people about Shakespeare, and who leave me their Shakespeare books when they check out. They also behind other goodies that they can’t carry back to their countries, including hair dryers, fans, books, and sometimes unopened food goodies. Now, I feel like London has taught me how to be a bit of a scab, taking the free goodies that come my way. Although I feel that it is ok when the students give them to you rather than throwing them in the bin. I think it just makes me thrifty!! Yay thrifty!! I know Emma loves it when I bring home presents haha.
Aside from work which has taken up most of my time, I have been hanging out at home with my housemates, or going out with my housemates. The house is pretty quiet at the moment as two people have left, and another two are on holidays, leaving only 3 of us left in the house…yes, there is normally 7 in our tiny little house. However there are always guests in our house that we smuggle in (because our landlord is a dick and doesn’t allow us to have guests unless he charges us extra).

So in terms of fun in the last week or so has been taking the trolley that we stole from Tesco (it has a new home in front of our house so that we can cart our groceries back and forwards… ) as well as going on a pub crawl for our housemates twenteenth birthday (yes, avoid becoming an adult as long as possible!)

Emma made a delicious chocolate mud cake for Ally’s birthday and I arrived home just in time for cake and pre drinks before heading out for the night. At Ally’s request I wore the dress I bought in Sweden that has panda’s, unicorns, cupcakes and the solar system scattered all over it’s blue fabric. Although, let’s be honest it wouldn’t take much to make me wear that on a normal day!
We headed out on the sweltering central line (seriously, my most hated line) and ran to meet another friend who had hooked us up with saving spots on the pub crawl for us. We got in, got our free shots and t-shirts, and the rest of the night consisted of dancing, more shots and jugs of mai tai’s. 
By about 2am I was sitting in Piccadilly Square watching the lights and people going by. London is really quite beautiful at night (and still incredibly busy). I should definitely make a point of coming outside more during the night, it is entirely different to the day!

As a mission for the night Emma and I sought to get Ally as many birthday hugs as possible! I believe by the end of the night I was the winner of scoring her the most hugs with the line “it’s my friends birthday, you should give her a birthday hug”. I think all together we tallied close to 30 hugs for her. 


By this stage Emma had already left for home, so Ally and I made our way to the night bus, but not before stopping for something to soak up the copious amounts of Sambuca shots. I don’t know how, but I seem to have a knack of finding creepy older guys determined to hold my hand. Tonight was no exception as we stood in line for burger king, I managed to find someone who would not let go of my hand, holding it against his chest whilst telling me that he thinks Australian’s are the nicest people. Yeah, keep holding my hand buddy and you will see how unfriendly Australian’s can get when I whoop your ass. Needless to say we got our food and got out of there and onto the night bus.

Hilarious story of the night though was when a guy sitting opposite me on the bus fell asleep and the bus swerved around the corner…next thing I knew he was on the floor with his head in my lap haha. He woke up abruptly and nobody could stop laughing whilst he hid his face in shame. His friend beside him kept breaking out in laughter for the next 20 minutes which would set both Ally and I off as well. I don’t think I have laughed so hard in a while.

The next day we got up without too much hassle… and had cake for breakfast. Breakfast of champions!! By the afternoon Emma, Mark, myself and Aidan all went to Regents park for a picnic. We lay in the grass watching the clouds go by, and enjoying the nice sunny English day. A few squirrels came to join us, we threw the tennis ball around (slash they threw, I ducked) and it was the perfect lazy day. We headed to the pub for another Sunday roast night (Veggo Bangers and mash for me!) and I had fallen asleep by 8:30pm tuckered up in bed.

I hope you are all extremely well!

..until next time,

Love B xo

2 Months down in London town!

Hey there all you lovely people…

SO turns out that I have been INCREDIBLY slack whilst writing my travel blogs of late…whilst I have started them, I have not finished them which is horrible. I could tell you that I have been exceptionally busy trying to set up a life here in London and travelling (yep, because I am now in London and have been living here for just over two months). So, those that I have missed I will come back to…so whilst you may see some blank posts below, that is why – rather than putting off my newer ones, I thought I would update you on the current then play catch up.

SO – London life!! 

After arriving in London on the 19^th of May 2014, I have already seen and learnt and done a bundle. Firstly trying to find somewhere to live, secondly trying to find a job, and thirdly trying to enjoy my time here.

In the past 2 months I have had 3 different jobs (hello temp life!) and all have been vastly different. I have worked in hospitality for 5 star hotels all around London (hectic hours, minimal pay), I have been a teachers’ assistant in schools working one on one with kids with behavioural issues (I always seem to fall back into this) and I have also been working reception/admin for student accommodation.

There have been days with no sleep with all the work, and days where all I do is sit on the computer and search for jobs so I can pay rent. Which brings me to the next thing; London is expensive to live in! Rent is high for a small house with no living room, dining room or back yard, and sharing with 6 other people (including sharing a room). Transport is also expensive when you fork out for a weekly oyster card, so at some points I am going around with £3 in my account for 5 days until the next pay day. Definitely not what I had envisioned when I dreamed up coming to live in London…which of course means that I have had no money for travelling.

Now that might sound like a party poopers attitude, BUT it is amazing the things you can find to do in London for free. Firstly most the tourist sights are free, you just need to hoof it around the city (or catch the delightfully sweltering tube…) and there is so much just to experience.

London is full of amazing markets that you just need to be in, although save some money for awesomely delicious food J that is a must! Brick lane markets are awesome, as are the Camden markets, and yet there are still hundreds more that I have yet to explore!! 

You can also spend hours just lying in one of the many amazing parks watching squirrels play in the trees (SQUIRRELS!!!) with a cider and a good book just hanging out.

I have discovered an awesome little book store on the canals near Paddington station. It is a second hand book store on a boat!! AMAZING!! Coincidentally this was located on my journey between my school job and my admin job…just stopping in for a cheeky look aroundJ. 

I got to see Arcade Fire play at Hyde Park, managing to score free wrist bands to get us closer to the stage with ridiculous amounts of room to dance like a spaz with great friends. I also learnt a new game that night of “catch” using a coconut…. which also turned into “piggy in the middle” with a security guard playing the piggy…

I have also gone to Holi fest in the pouring rain, throwing colourful powder in the air whilst dancing in a mosh pit as the rain turned the powder to paint. There are also free movies in the park during the summer time (MEAN GIRLS!).

Summer here is different to what I am used to in Melbourne. Here the summer is sticky with humidity made even more sticky when you are on the tube sardined with many other sweaty locals. I felt like I have been back in the Philippines on days like these.

A tradition between our housemates has also been Sunday roast night at our local pub. I am not sure how this started but it has been 6 weeks now in a row where we have ended up there. Gotta say, it is not a bad tradition to have (even for a vegetarian…om nom nom vegetarian roast).

Ohhhh London, you drain my bank account massively, but I do enjoy your company :)

Love always, B xo