Blogs from Tooting Broadway, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

8,444km. 145 days. 46 cities. 22 countries. Euro 2016 - my backpacking trip, not the football tournament (although the tournament did play a part in my trip) - has finally come to an end. After finishing up in Switzerland I took a flight to London where I spent three weeks sorting out admin, catching up with friends, catching up on the blog and generally taking a break from travelling. The last week of my travels before flying to London was particularly hectic (I walked about 120km that week) so I was relieved to be able to stay put for awhile. It was nice being somewhere familiar, re-living the life I had (sort of) when I was in living in London and being able to speak English completely naturally with the entire population, with everyone able to ... read more

I realise this is pushing it slightly for a travel blog, but I am going to come from the angle that this is what life is like living in London as a foreigner .. Also I am hoping to get a weekly blog from London and wherever my travels happen to take me on a Monday. From the amazing mind that brought you blogs from around the globe, I am presenting to you “Inappropriate Mondays”. Now this is my worldwide brainchild. A global invention. I came up with it today (Monday 8th April 2013) while my colleague and I were pulling funny faces at each other and sticking out our tongues. I feel that office life brings a certain level of mundane into our lives. I mean hand up who works in an office? If you ... read more

I'm dreaming of a white christmas, just like the ones I've never known. Well apparently it will not be cold enough her in London to snow over christmas day and I should expect my first sight of it over New Years in Edinburgh! I am a little disappointed as it has been very cold over the last week, ranging anywhere from -1ºC to 10ºC but not cold enough for snow. The other day I woke up to a gorgeous layer of frost blanketing everything outside and got very excited. It is all very pretty here in the winter leading up to christmas. The lights on Oxford Street and Regent Street outdo Melbourne cities and the tree in Leceister square trumps any others I have seen (sorry mum, even your bright blue baby!). This year I will ... read more

I've been back for almost a week now, but need to tie up a few loose ends and write a bit about the last few days that I had in California before coming home. My parents flew over from the UK to see me and their friends, the Haycocks, near San Francisco, and we immediatley drove out to Yosemite National Park for 3 days. The weather was pretty bad, lots of rain and low cloud, but the scenery was perhaps even more dramatic, and it was great to see El Capitan and Half Dome, formations I'd seen loads of photos and heard stories of, but not seen before. We did a little bit of walking but mainly drove around the park, had the occasional picnic, took loads of photos and also spent a bit of time ... read more