A look back at 2015
Wow, how is it New Year's Eve already? I swear I say this every time, but this year really has flown by. I can't believe it was 2 years ago that I left to go to
Australia, and that we've been back 10 months already. Time has whizzed by but not without leaving some beautiful memories.
This time last year we were
celebrating the New Year in by watching the fireworks in Sydney harbour. It was most definitely the most magical New Year's Eve I've ever experiences. We then embarked on a whirlwind week tour up the east coast of Australia - visiting Brisbane, Noosa, Airlie Beach, Fraser Island and Cairns. It was manic, with a couple of full day drives, but it was SO worth it. I loved that camper van, as much as I moaned about it at the time.
We then jetted off to Osaka to begin three weeks worth of traveling
Japan. We both fell in love with this country. It blew my mind! The food, the culture, the architecture - everything was incredible. Three weeks was not long enough. We saw lots of different places, but we were so sad to leave. It's definitely a place we'd like to revisit in the future.
Next up was
China, starting off in Beijing we worked our way down to the south, walking across The Great Wall and getting up close to giant pandas. Two phenomenal experiences we will never forget. From here we spent a few days in Hong Kong before stopping off in Paris, and then finally back home to be reunited with our family and friends.
After countless reunions, welcome home parties and family dinners it was March and we were job less, each living back home with our parents. From living with each other, seeing each other every day, and then traveling for 3 months, this was a really hard adjustment. We both knew we wanted to move to London, so that was it. We got on it! Within a month I'd landed a job at boohoo, Stew had two companies fighting over him (quite literally) and we'd moved into an Air bnb in the heart of the city.
By July we were hunting for our own place again and found our beautiful little one bed flat in North London. We've now been living here five months, and although it's gone super quickly, I wouldn't change a second of it. We truly love our home, and that's such a great feeling. Although I loved living in Australia, and I miss it every day (especially when I'm reminded of great times via Facebook every morning!!), it never felt like home. We were living with strangers and couldn't put our stamp on anywhere as we'd soon be leaving again. I'm probably going to sound old now, but it's so nice to be able to buy furnishings, nice kitchen utensils, pretty cut glass tumblers! Although we're only renting it still feels like our home. We've made into our own. (Unfortunately it's not any of the photos featured above. That was the stunning Air bnb we lived in West London).
I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions, however there are a few things both myself and Stew want to incorporate into our lives, moving into 2016.
- Since having our own place we've really got into cooking. I love sharing our recipes with you and I want to continue this. I also want to continue, and improve, on our own sauces and pice mixes. I haven't had the most wonderful year in terms of my teeth. My dentist has made a fortune out of me this year! Although I live a relatively healthy lifestyle, my teeth still seem to suffer. So I want to cut out sugar, or as much as I can as possible. After looking into it, I was alarmed at how much sugar is pumped into jars of pasta sauce. I know this is just one small part of millions of sugar filled foods, but it's an easy one to create yourself, and I'm sure many others are too.
- Stew and I both want to take up yoga, or something similar. Stew plays five a side football every week, but I'm very inactive. So many of my friends, and bloggers that I follow, have got into fitness this year. And not just because they want to lose weight, but because they've wanted to be healthier and with that has come a greater sense of energy in both body and mind. I often feel slugish and lazy, and really feel this would be good for me. Plus it's something we can do as a couple.
- Tick off more things to see and do in London! We started our time in London so well. We were out and about every weekend sightseeing, but as with everything we've become complacent. Winter hasn't helped, but going into the New Year we need to pick this back up again.
- And finally a positive and healthy outlook on life! Now this is a more difficult one, which will hopefully come in time, and could be helped by all of the above. But naturally I'm a very pessimistic person. I'm often feeling stressed over silly things, I'm always rushing around, I'm forever busy. The rat race lifestyle of London has only worsened this, and I've taken on too many blog collaborations in recent months, where I've been left no longer enjoying blogging. This is something I want to rectify. I need to learn to say no to some opportunities, and to think of myself more. Even with friends, it's okay to say no occasionally. I always feel bad letting people down, but I need to make more time for myself, and more time for me and Stew. Although we live together, we have very busy, long working days, and often feel like we spend no quality time together. It's okay making time for this, but I also need to get better at relaxing. It might sound silly, but I'm honestly terrible at it! I never just switch off. So this is something that I will try to improve on about myself over the coming year.
What about you? What have your highlights been this year? What are you looking forward to about 2016? Please leave any links to similar posts you may have written, in the comments below.
I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating the New Year in later. Thank you so much for sticking by me this year through all the personal travels and changes. I hope you've enjoyed my story so far!