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[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Know what you want to do

These are thoughts that I wanted to share from someone I spoke with this week, who is leaving their job after almost a decade 

Have you ever heard of the saying, “if you do something really well, you’ll be recognised for it... then you’ll start doing more of the same thing but on a bigger and bigger scale?”. So figure out what it is that you want to do. If you’re in a job where you wouldn’t like to do more of what you currently do, then it’s time to reevaluate. If you see someone doing something that you’d like to do, start small and ask them if you can take on some of it, even 10% or 20%, so that they think of you when the opportunity comes around. Know what you want to do. If you don’t, join a company that’s big enough for you to figure it out in your 20s, so by the time you’re in your 30s, you’ll know exactly what you want to go deep on. 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Life, in progress

I’ve barely had a second to write here only because i’ve moved to pen and paper. 

I’m feeling pretty settled in, for the most part - though it still hits me every now and then that this is now my life (in the best way). 

Work has been keeping me busy lately, along with my new 9am routine (it is possible to switch from being a night owl to an early bird - for me, its been a mix of apps (F.lux & Twilight for my Mac & mobile phone), meditation, routine and lots of alarms and sleep. 

I’ve also been exploring places all over London on the weekends. And early morning running sessions with friends. My latest ‘I love this place!’ moment happened in Victoria Park, the biggest park in East London, this past weekend.

Oh, and my apartment is coming together! I’ve now become a seasoned expert in building all sorts of furniture. My latest ‘creation’ is the Charles Eames chair. Fact: I spent way too many hours looking at chair designs. 

Proper update when the weekend rolls around. Have the best week, my friends! 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Lion's heart

And for all the pennies in your pocket, we barely get a second just to speak...

Sometimes things work out, and sometimes they don't.

What I like about music is that sometimes it finds a way to describe particular moments in life in such detail that you would think that song was specifically written for you, or about the happenings of your life. 

Here's my five for this week: 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

You should write

You should write when you feel something; and you should write what you know... 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Making a home

As of last night, i've moved into my new apartment - which officially marks my three months here in London. Whoohoo!

Before I moved to London, I came across an article about living with only 100 possessions which became an idea I kept bringing up with friends. I decided that there was no better time to try this than now. So a couple of months before my move date, I started planning how i'd actually pull this off. Every other weekend, I'd get an overnight bag full of things from my parent's house, bring it back to my apartment, and start either selling, donating or giving away the things I could do without. Also, every time I purchased something (like my Penny Board behind me), I would give away something in return (in this case, I gave away a laptop). If you're thinking of a spring clean, challenge yourself to 100-200 things and see how you feel after :-) 

Oh, the point of that story was to say that my move this week was slightly stressful (mostly on contracts, negotiations, etc) but the move itself, having only to pack <100 things made it a lot easier. I also opted to get an Uber to transport all my stuff over, with a driver who even offered to help me carry things - over a mover. 

I am still buzzing with excitement that I found this place after 30+ viewings. London is a difficult place to rent in - yes, everyone had warned me beforehand but I didn't listen - I thought, "how hard can it be?" until I saw apartments with missing bathtubs, or "2 bedroom apartments" where one room had 3 people sharing - they're just the tip of the ice berg of stories I have from my home search. I eventually decided to take the advice of a friend to rent out an entire place to myself, and then furnish it, find a housemate, etc. 

When I woke up this morning, all I had in my bedroom were a few books, a lamp and my ukulele. I'm really looking forward to making a home here - and I can't stop looking at furniture, homeware and interior design. Today is a great day! 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

I really enjoy going on YouTube to listen to covers of songs. It's pretty amazing how much undiscovered beauty there is out in the world. 

There are a few covers of John Mayer's unreleased, 'Everything You'll Ever Be' (Hotel Bathroom Song)' but I chose this one because I can totally relate to Joakim Rainer's caption where he writes: 

"I don't understand why John didn't release this song! It's one of the most beautiful songs I know of." 

+1 to that. Take this one for a spin. 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Side projects

I'm excited to introduce 'to seek the world' - a side project i've been working on lately: toseektheworld.com 

Originally, I had thought about registering 'to see the world' - thanks to a typo, I landed on 'seek', and it stuck with me. To seek is to be in pursuit of something, to be searching or chasing -- which is very much something I hope to always be aspiring to. 

I'll be using my .com to house some of my favourite snaps and also photographic experiments. I'm also getting back into the 'bulky camera' game and i've recently bought the Fuji X-T1 - hooray!

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

I've been on the road

...a fair bit these past few weeks which explains why its been pretty quiet here

I've been to Brighton in England + skiing in Zermatt, Switzerland + started another trip around the sun whilst in Iceland + met a bunch of new folks over in Ireland + signed my first apartment in London

More on everything a bit later as I've just arrived back in London, in what feels like a very long time. My own bed is calling! 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Better and birthdays

Today I took to the pools in the evening with a friend of mine who has volunteered his time generously to help me get prepared for my snorkeling trip in Iceland in a couple of weeks time. More on this later in February (with photos, of course). 

Anyway, it made me realise that we can all become better in ways that we want to be - for me, I want to be better in water and after tonight's impromptu swim lessons, I feel that 10% better (yes, 10% because he was an amazing teacher!) and tomorrow, I'm taking a more formal class to improve on swimming. In short, if you want to be better at something, you can be - the only thing standing between you today and who you want to be tomorrow are a line of excuses (whether you think you can't do it, or you haven't got time, and so on...). 

The other thing I wanted to make note of, is that for the first time ever in my life, I won't be home for my birthday. My mum sent me a lovely note today wishing me an early happy birthday, as she's going to be on holidays this week and next and so she'll be disconnected. So, usually the tradition is to host a big gathering of friends and family at my house and feast on a banquet until late into the night. This year, I'll be venturing to Iceland with a friend of mine who's visiting from Sydney. We've planned a pretty amazing itinerary - which isn't hard to do, considering Iceland is a pretty amazing place (Iceland can take credit for it all ;-)). I'm excited for it! 

Off to dinner and a fun-filled weekend ahead. It's good to be back! 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

A post about a post... how very postmodern

Between my last post and this one, i've since had one of the best summers in Sydney (I called it early and it lived up to the high expectations I had ;-)), spent a whirlwind day in Beijing and now back in London, ready to take on 2015. 

I've been back for a week now, although it feels like I never left. Work has been keeping me extremely busy during the weekdays, and weekends are filled with exploring this city with new friends. I wanted to organise a few photos and videos before making this post but I don't think I'll get around to that for a few more weeks at best - i'll be spending the next three weekends entirely offline. Side note: the third weekend will be on my birthday, where Iceland adventures await - more on this in a future post. 

I also have a small project in the works that i'll write about when I ship it. 

Life is being really good to me, and I hope it is to you, too! 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Home

Home is where the heart is... :-) 

I arrived on Christmas morning after what felt like being in transit for the longest day ever. It feels great being back with my family and friends to celebrate Christmas and to ring in the new year together. 

Its been four days and i'm making the most of all the little things I love about Sydney, including: 

Taking a walk by the water at Darling Harbour and sitting on the steps to watch the street performers wow the crowds 

Dining on as much Chinese food as humanly possible over the next two weeks (psst... the secret to a delicious and authentic dish is to let my mum decide what to order from the menu - guaranteed, every single time!)

Being outdoors on these long summer days when the sun doesn't set until 8pm 

Trying new things like riding a penny board through the city (even if it means getting a bit of an injury on day one)

Summer in Sydney is shaping up to be a good one!

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

My London Year 2014…

Goodbye 2014 and hello 2015 - a new year awaits and I can’t wait to meet it. The best is yet to come…

All images © Ronya Galka

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Christmas

Tonight I decided to take my camera with me as I walked around the city. These two photos I took really capture the feeling of being amongst the crowds and the warm atmosphere at Covent Garden. 

I also managed to finish all my Christmas shopping today (hooray!) and picked up a few things that I'm really excited to gift to my family and friends. 

I'll be home for Christmas this week. It hasn't hit me yet, and the thought of being in Sydney midweek is still very surreal. My calendar has been filled with lots of catch ups and dinners that i'm amped for. It feels like i've been gone for a while, and at the same time, not long at all. Time is a funny thing, isn't it?

Take note of the Shake Shack on the right - not as amazing as the one in Madison Park but you still get a decent dose of the black and white shakes :-) 

Feeling incredibly festive walking through a city lit up the way London is at the moment 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Discovery

Back in Sydney, I rarely ever used the kitchen in my apartment. Dinner was just too good of an excuse to catch up with friends after a long day at work, or to explore the trendiest cafes and restaurants popping up all around Sydney on the weekends.

It's a completely different story in London. On the weekdays, I'm always making my own dinner. There are a few reasons for this: 

I've always had cooking on my list of life skills to learn

I like creating things in general and i've found cooking to be a form of art in that you decide what you want to make, then you literally bring it to life

Work has been non-stop lately and making dinner has been a way of getting my brain off work for the day 

London is a very expensive city, more so than Sydney, so if I kept up my lifestyle of dining out every night, I wouldn't be able to travel to all the places that I've set my sights on 

Exploring places to eat is more fun when in good company, so I 'save' it for the weekends with new friends 

To be healthy, mindful, and know exactly what's in my food 

Tonight, I made chicken pasta with crème fraîche and tomato sauce and a side of mixed vegetables: 

Just the beginning of my kitchen adventures! 

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Beautiful

Took a walk through the streets of Paris tonight, and all the adjectives for the word "beautiful" came to mind every time I would turn a corner.

Third time here and it’s still as charming as the first.

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

Anchor

Sometimes I feel like I'm back home in my apartment in Sydney, only to realise a second later that I'm not. Is this an expat thing?

[thefirstfewmonthsinlondon-blog]

New Maps

Rolling into my third week here and its been a good one

Work has been picking up quite a bit with Christmas just around the corner, and only about 7 working days left this year. Next week, I’ll be in France for work which is exciting! My first stop will be Paris, which is always a great city to visit, and then i’ll be making my way through the different regions. My schedule is completely filled but I’m hoping for a little bit of downtime after work so I can get lost in the city lights with my camera in hand :-) 

We also had our holiday party last night. The theme was ‘Toy Town’ and dress code was to come dressed as one of your favourite childhood toys.

This is literally my expression when i’m wondering about one thing… Where’s Wally?! 

The party was held in a theatre where four storeys were decked out in larger than life living toys (imagine giant dancing robots) and board games (I saw a life-sized game of Operation being played). It felt like being in a real-life Toy Story. I spent most of the night at the main concert hall where Tinie Tempah performed while ‘snow’ of all sizes kept falling from above including these snow balls that were being thrown everywhere - this was the largest snow ball fight i’ve ever taken part in! 

It was such a great night. Definitely one of the best holiday parties i’ve ever been to. 

Another thing I’ve been really enjoying is exploring… everything. I even make note of going down different routes to get to places like work, underground or even the grocery shop. I find that this always lands me to discover lots of new things that are well hidden from the hustle and bustle of main streets that Google Maps will always show you as the first route. 

Also, I like the fact that I don’t have any favourite or go-to restaurants or cafes (yet). This week I tried two new restaurants for dinner. The first being ‘Pho’ which is a cozy noodle bar tucked away in an alleyway in Soho (rating: 3/5) and ‘La Polenteria’, a small family-run restaurant that specialises in polenta and comfort Italian food (rating: 4/5). 

Next week will be my last weekend in London until I head home for the holidays. Time flies when you’re creating new maps :-)