A year and a bit ago, 19 year old me quit my jobs, packed up my life into a 20kg weight limited suitcase and flew 10, 262 miles to London, England. It was the country I was born in, one that my parents grew up in and had known most of their lives as home, but one that they decided to leave behind and one that I'd never really known. The main pull for me was the closeness of it all- you could be in another country in a matter of hours. Australia is an AMAZING country and an incredible place to live, but to travel anywhere is a
major pain in the ass. For whatever reason, I had always had this pull towards Europe. I had always wanted to travel and explore the continent to my hearts desire. I had also considered maybe living there for a while, getting to know my english family, experiencing some cold weather, an english Christmas and whatever else came with it. So I did and I ended up staying a lot longer than planned...
I'd left Australia with an image of England in my head; rainy, cold, crowded and a bit depressing. Equally, I was excited to explore some of its historic buildings and cute little cobblestoned towns and experience a different sort of life style. I didn't have hugely high expectations but I tried to be a bit open minded. It didn't help that everyone there asked me what I was doing there when I could be laying on a beach in Australia every day. As I said, I never intended to stay so long but I met people along the way that made it feel like home and showed me aspects of England that I absolutely fell in love with.
1. Christmas
Oh my gosh! I have always been the biggest christmas fan ever! I love everything about it and get super into it every year. Keeping in mind that my christmases usually consist of bikinis, air conditioning, bbqs, swimming pools, sunset drinks along the river, beach trips, etc, the fact that I was going to be in a country where it would be winter was very exciting to me. Don't get me wrong I love my Australian christmases. They are home to me and they are lovely, but I couldn't wait to experience the cliche christmas of snow (ok I didn't quite get that one), christmas jumpers, cosy nights, big coats and scarves, roast dinners and all the joys of a winter christmas. I got given about a week off of work at the time and it was definitely what I needed! I got to christmas shop for all the family I never usually saw in these shops that I wasn't used to and were incredible and packed and crazy and it wasn't that different from home, only it wasn't the same old shopping centre I visited yearly. It was a change. I visited several different little shopping towns and little markets and went out for drinks on christmas eve in my 89 coats and jumpers. I got to wear a christmas jumper!!! And I even bought a christmas beanie! And I worked at a coffee shop so we had a whole range of christmas drinks that were released and were so fun to make and we got to wear christmas shirts and I just got so into the spirit. I loved everyones front doors with their beautiful wreaths and lights and I honestly just enjoyed it so much.
2. The Seasons
Unlike Australia, England actually has notable changes in each season. Our autumn is very brief and it doesn't get anywhere near as colourful as Englands does. I absolutely fell in love during my first fall and it's something I'm really going to miss. I love the cosiness of autumn, how it's not too cold that you need 8 coats and a beanie, but just cool enough that you can wrap up in your dressing gown, light some candles and enjoy a nice cup of tea. I love the foggy, crisp mornings. I love the amazing colours that all the trees go. I love the halloween season. I love forest walks and watching all the leaves fall. I love scarves!!! I love boots and the general autumnal fashion. And then there's the Christmas period- MY FAVOURITE TIME OF YEAR! Winter is actually freezing, whereas Australia just gets a bit chilly. I saw my first snow falling on a night out and it was the most magical thing ever. I didn't LOVE having to wear 982 layers of clothing every time I left the house, and then having to peel them all off whenever I left a building however. But despite that, the whole lead up to christmas is just so festive and there are so many wintery/christmasy experiences that I have mentioned above, that are amazing and lovely! Spring is flowery and fresh! Summer is pretty non existent except for a few scatter of hot days where every complains or sunbaths and the days are longer which is nice! I had some really cute little summer barbecues which were some of my favourite nights.
3. The Pub Life
In Australia you might meet at a bar or for a drink, but the pub life is no where near as popular and as fun as England's. I can't quite explain it, but it's just a very different feel to Australian bars/pubs. It's very homely feeling. You all go in and get your drinks and all sit at a big table and everyones in there doing the same and you see people you know and its just a nice feeling. It's not that different to any other countries, there's just something quite lovely about English pubs and the whole "Meet you at the pub/You coming to the pub tonight?". The pubs in the town I've been living in do the best food as well. I feel like my favourite and most visited pubs hold some of my favourite memories and are the reason I bonded with a lot of the people I have. Whether it was a quick after work drink, a sneaky date with a boy or the weekly steak date with my bestie, they were all fond memories. The beer gardens are also lovely in a lot of the English pubs and although they can get chilly, when you've had a few you tend not to notice! The pubs have definitely been the pin point of my social life here in England and they've been a lot of fun.
4. The History, Buildings & Cute Little Towns
I am obsessed with buildings that are old, abandoned looking, castle-like and historic- I love them all. So England was my ideal place as they have a lot of buildings that fit these descriptions. I love exploring any old buildings I can and on my travels have seen lots! The area I mainly lived in was very old and was your typical cobble stone road small town village. It was absolutely lovely and most of the buildings were incredibly historic looking. I loved them. England has so much history that it's an experience in itself to just walk around towns and admire the architecture. One of my favourite places was Oxford that literally looked like hogwarts on every corner. It was one of my favourite places to explore and get lost in.
5. Everything Being Nearby (ish)
Australia is far away from almost everything- as I'm sure everyone is aware. Being in England felt very central. I could be in another country within hours, I could have any product that I ordered online within 24 hours, I could go and see almost any band/musician playing somewhere in the country if I could afford to, I could jump on a train and within 50 minutes be in one of the most busy cities in the world. It feels like everything goes on here and everything is just an arms length away and it's an awesome experience. I feel like I definitely made the most of the travelling side, and also got a lot of use out of online shopping. It's also the kind of place where there's a shop for almost anything/everything, just a phone call away or a few minutes drive up the road. It may no longer be part of the EU (technically) but it's still 100% smack bang in the middle of it (metaphorically) and it's great!
6. The Coffee
Before coming to England, I hated coffee. You would think that I would have become a huge tea fanatic, but I already had english parents so I already drank a lot of tea. Coffee however, as big as it is in Australia, never appealed to me. My first and main job in England however, was at Costa coffee and everyone was always shocked that I worked there and didn't drink it. Slowly, they all tried to get me into it, and one day I just agreed and somehow slowly introduced it into my life, and now I absolutely love it. I'm a huge coffee snob, however and have grown accustomed to Costa's coffee. I haven't yet found another coffee that I like anywhere near as much. Not only did I love drinking it, I loved making it. It was something I never would have imagined myself getting into, but this job made me fell in love with those little brown beans and actually feel passionate about them. It was all so interesting and exciting and fun! I had some absolutely shit days dealing with stressful situations, coffee machine breakdowns, staff shortages and all kinds of problems, but I also had many days where I felt proud to be there, proud to make peoples coffees, proud that I remembered so many peoples orders and loved to surprise them with it and make peoples days. Proud of my team for absolutely nailing busy rushes and hectic periods and for how far they'd all come. I have trained some of them and watched them progress and it's been a lovely feeling. It's not always the best job in the world, but I'm so glad I did it because I really did pour my heart and soul into it, and came out with great friends, experiences and knowledge!
7. The Shopping
The shopping in the UK is so much better than Australia's! They have so much more variety and the online shopping is ten times better as it's usually next day delivery, easier to send back, etc. Everything is just a lot easier, they have bigger stores and brands and they have some really cool shops that I absolutely love and always shop at. In Australia you don't really need coats and scarves unless you live in the colder parts like Melbourne, etc. In England however, the seasons allow you to have such a variety of outfits and fashion and the whole layers thing is really fun! They also are probably tie for prices, but I think England has a lot more sales/better deals and you can get a lot more for your money.
8. SOME of the people
Just like everywhere in the world, you meet some amazing people and you meet some complete twats. I've met them all. I've met some life long friends, some people I never want to see again, some people who started out as my favourites but ended up being my least favourites, some unbelievable kind and generous people and some absolute selfish dicks. Overall, I had quite a pleasant experience and am trying to focus on the positive ones.
The lovely people I met let me into their lives, under their wings and showed me parts of the country, culture and lifestyle. My english family took me all round the place to different parks, castles, universities, old towns, cities, christmas markets, shopping centres and everything in between. They let me intrude on many family dinners, barbecues, birthdays and a christmas. They helped celebrate my birthdays and stepped up to take my parents role when they had to.
In my first job everyone was so welcoming and I had instant friends. They made fun of my accent and made it their mission to give me English experiences. They let me tag along on fun outings or small little road trips to get fags and once took me laser tagging and to a fright night all in the same week. Some of us became pub buddies and went for drinks after work often. They made me feel very at ease and very welcome and it was like a mini family that I really needed and loved. I'm so grateful that they were my first "English friends/work" experience.
The people in my next job were equally welcoming and I met some absolute gems here too. From the frequent after work pub outings, the christmas drinking, the nights out... (we all may have been slight alcoholics) I met some people who I really came to care about. Some of them I helped progress and have watched them succeed and grow. I got to see a bit more of the country with some of them and even enjoyed the little small town events like the fair, a food festival, the pub gatherings & the beer festivals. I was lucky enough to really connect with one particular gem who really took me under her wing, helped me progress, had my back at all costs, invited me along to little family gatherings of her own so I would miss mine less, had almost weekly steak dates with me, took me to some amazing food places including the best damn pies of our lives, shared many of my passions, interests and SASS, and overall just made me feel very at home.
My aunty and uncle who I've lived with for over a year have definitely had to put up with some shit, and kudos to them for putting up with me for so damn long. I think they secretly have loved having me around but they might not miss the smeary stove tops, the missing chocolate, the bomb site of a bedroom and the constant complaints and rants about boys, work, english weather, english roads and everything in between. They've been very generous and have treated me like their own and I wouldn't have been anywhere near as happy without them.
There's always a risk of letting yourself fall in love.. whether it's with a place or a person, that one day you're going to have to say goodbye. You get used to things and start to appreciate them and then one day you realise you have to give them up and it's sad. Moving to another country was exciting but scary because if I did fall in love with it, I knew it'd be hard to leave. For so long I was convinced that I would always return home and it wouldn't even be questioned. Why would I want to live in a place where you felt like it was winter for 8 months of the year, it rained more often than you breathed air? But surely and slowly, the little things about this cute little country did win me over. Australia will always be my home and who I am, but I think I always thought I had to be one or the other. Now I think it's perfectly fine to have two homes, and love them both for different things. Although it's a constant battle of two different lives and you are torn between people you love on different sides of the world, you have to just go with your heart and enjoy them both whilst you can.
Obviously though, due to the title of this blog post, that was a blatant lie to myself. Growing up, I did steer clear of the stuff though. I hated the smell of it and even every now and then when my dad would offer me to "try proper coffee now I was older" I never, once enjoyed it even slightly. I continued to utterly despise the stuff, though weirdly... I didn't mind a bit of tiramisu (thats the foodie in me). Watching TV shows and films over the years where young characters had to have their morning coffee to survive was so beyond me. It seemed addictive, irrational and expensive & how could these 16 year old girls in these TV dramas afford Starbucks triple soy mocha double shot frappacinos every single day?? I could not relate and could never imagine myself to be that kind of person- a coffee addict.
It wasn't until I moved away from the supposed "coffee continent" of Australia, to the other side of the world & got a job in a coffee shop that I finally started drinking the stuff. Even still, it probably took me a good 6-8 months for them to convince me to give coffee a chance. I literally made thousands of coffees a week for people, went home smelling of it and practically lived and breathed the stuff (thats not overdramatic- I literally breathed coffee fumes every day, worked 40+ hours a week and all my friends and even my boyfriend at the time were all employees at this coffee shop- it was literally my life). So finally, I gave in and started small with 1 shot cappuccinos. I grew to enjoy them and soon felt that morning relief after my first sip of the day, as if I'd only just properly woken up. It was like my whole body sighed of happiness, yet I still didn't feel "addicted" per say. One week I was quite ill, and read that caffeine made sinus's worse, so I just didn't drink any for 8 days straight and felt fine without it. Some days we would get so busy that I would get home at 8pm ish and realise that I hadn't had a single sip of coffee that day. Other days I would casually drink about 3 of them within an hour and feel absolutely fine (ok maybe I got slightly more annoying an hyperactive).
