I’m moving from Leeds to London!

I currently live in Leeds which is located in the North West of England, but next week I’m actualising my dream by moving to London, and more precisely, Greenwich!

London is a place I’ve always wanted to live but for one reason or another I’ve never managed to make the move until now. However, I’m not heading to London with starry eyes; admittedly, the main reason that held me back from moving earlier has been due to a lack of money. As most people know, the cost of living in London is notoriously high but after finishing uni, getting a job, and saving some money I’m now able to give England’s capital city a go.

Looking for somewhere to live has been an eye-opening experience as well as deflating and frustrating. For example, in Leeds you can rent a large, three bedroomed house with a big garden, but for the same price you’d pay in Leeds you’d only be able to rent a teeny tiny, one bedroomed flat in London. If I had the dream of having a big house with a white picket fence then I’d probably stay up North, but that’s not my dream and I’m already pretty well accustomed to living in crammed places. But learning how far (or little) my money goes in London will be something that’ll take longer to adapt to I’m hesitant to admit. I’ve really had to consider all the factors, and ask myself where I’d be happiest, but for now, whilst I don’t have a family or kids who need the space to run around like feral animals, I’ll take a chance on London.

Once I move down and pay the monthly rent, it’ll leave me with a small budget to spend on recreational activities so I’ll need to swap eating out for eating in. This’ll be a good chance for me to work on my cooking skills which at the moment leave little to be desired. And whilst I aim to spend less money on having fun, ironically, I’m also hoping to increase the amount of things I do recreationally because there are so many free things to do and see in London. Every time I’m in London I’m astounded at how much there’s available to do for free, and this leaves me with an exciting new direction for my blog. Up until now, I’ve been writing on The Culture Map with the knowingness that it doesn’t really live up to the reason why I started the blog. My initial plan was to blog about museums and exhibitions, to essentially put ‘culture’ in The Culture Map, but instead I’ve just kind of fumbled through each post without having much of a long-term theme, so it’ll be great to give it more structure by writing further about the cultural and regional offerings of London.

As my move to London draws near, I’ve naturally started to think about all the things I’ll miss about Leeds and the familiar environment I call ‘home’.  My familiar environment consists of a small town called Cleckheaton where I grew up, and as well as Leeds, another nearby city called Bradford which was famous for its industrial heritage but is now famous for serving up a good curry. These places make up many of my childhood memories; they are the places where I first learnt how to ride a bike, where I went hunting for frog spawn, got caught skipping school, and where the general misadventures of my adolescent years took place.

So here are a few things I’ll miss:

I’ll miss the quick escapes to all the beautiful areas of countryside in Yorkshire.

Eating the best olives, hummus and falafel at Cafe Moor inside Leeds Market.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Victoria Quarter shopping centre in Leeds, because whilst it’s a beautiful place where I worked for four years and made some great friends, I often felt there was a lack of personal satisfaction involved with working here.

I love going to Haworth and seeing the landscape that inspired the Bronte sisters to write such novels Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

Northerners are known for being friendly, so the warm and smiley folks from where I live will be missed. I have some friends who will go as far as saying they hate London because no one says hello to anyone, people expect doors to be open for them, and finding space on the Underground is considered a luxury!

Last but not least, I’ll miss friends and family which’ll always give me a reason to go back up North. Wish me luck! 🙂