I think, or even better, I know that I love big cities. I have previously written about my love for New York, which you can read here if you missed it.

You have most likely been to Oxford Street, or at the very least heard of it. I love it, the business of it with what seems the ridiculous amount of people and the endless road of shops, and it seems to go on for miles! What can only be described as a shopaholic’s heaven!

Another part of London that I love is Knightsbridge. Home to Harrods and Harvey Nichols! There’s something about Harrods that I prefer to Selfridges. The building is so much nicer but it is almost guaranteed that you will get lost. Whenever I go there, I always go to the Food Hall. It is huge and there are so many treats that you can’t get anywhere else.

Similarly, Harvey Nichols food hall is again something else. It is much smaller than the one in Harrods but the products you can get there are more for cooking and baking as opposed to ready-made products, such as cakes or jars of sweets. My kind of place!

And last, but without a doubt not least, is the Natural History Museum. I could go there 100 times and still not get bored; I’m looking into going again there soon! The best part has to be the dinosaur exhibition. You just have to go if you haven’t been before.

K…is for Kingston upon Thames

This is one hell of a beautiful place and somewhere that I get the pleasure of calling home!

I originally come from Salisbury and they are very similar except that in Kingston the shops are way better.

It’s in the name but Kingston sits on the river Thames and in the summer there is nowhere else I would rather be than in one of the pubs overlooking the river drinking a cold cider!

I’ve been through a lot in this place and sure it would probably be much easier to run away and start again but what kind of a person would that make me?

I’m not leaving anytime soon no matter what anyone says!

My life and my friends are in Kingston now and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

I’m really looking forward to what I can achieve while I live here!

Plus as a bonus, I’m only half an hour away from London on the train which is great for when I want a day out there!

Madame Tussauds September 2014

As I mentioned previously I went on a tourist trip into Central London. On this day I went to Madame Tussauds. We hopped on the underground to go to Baker Street and Madame Tussauds was only a minute away from the station. Buying your tickets in advance means that you get to skip the queue, even though there wasn’t one anyway.

We headed in and an entire room of wax figures greeted us and we suddenly turned into overexcited kids! Literally…we didn’t know where to head first.

Now I’m going to warn you, it is no secret that I love One Direction (sorry not sorry). About a year ago, they made their wax figures that went all over the world to all the different Madame Tussauds locations. They are now back in London so I was a bit overexcited, but don’t worry I’m not like one of those completely crazy fans who basically lives for them. Anyway, I just had to buy the professional photos but luckily Sarah works for Merlin Entertainment and we got a discount!

After we both managed to calm down a little, we carried on seeing all the different wax figures. There are hundreds and I don’t want to bore you by describing them all! So I’ll show you some of my favourite ones here…

If you ever get the chance to go to London and you are looking for something to do then I would highly recommend going on the London Eye and to Madame Tussauds.

It was one of the best days out I’ve had and I haven’t laughed that much in a while.

London Eye September 2014

On Sunday I went on a tourist day into central London with Sarah. We hopped on the train to Waterloo and walked down to South Bank to get on the London Eye. First of all you get some photos taken in front of a green screen and they come out as if you are sitting on the London Eye. Pretty awesome! Then you see a 4D show which is a prelude to going on it and it lasted roughly 5 minutes. I thought it was great! You get to see what it is like during the day and night and you see it all from a bird’s point of view, I guess the point of going round the London Eye! Sarah really hates Ferris Wheels so she was quite nervous but wanted to conquer her fear, but this scared her!

We checked out our photos after then headed to get on the London Eye. We had fast track tickets straight away.

The pods are quite big and you can walk all around the edge and there is a bench in the middle. It took just under half an hour to go all the way around, it goes a lot quicker than you would think but you don’t feel it at all.

The views were great, you got to see up and down the Thames and see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I was slightly disappointed, I thought you would have been able to see a lot more and more London landmarks, but the view of Big Ben is one I will never forget.

It was a truly great experience and I’m so glad that I was able to tick it off my bucket list.

Sarah also did it! I’m not sure if she loved it as much as I did but we’re both proud of her for actually doing it!

I definitely want to go on it again during the evening; I can imagine it being so pretty all lit up!

Life: the ‘reality vs. expectations’

Since I was about 15 or 16 I have had expectations of how my life would pan out, at the time I called it my 10 year plan. I always thought I would have graduated university by now, in some kind of accounting job and living in London. In 5 years time (by the time I’m 26) I wanted to have a husband and my first child.

I know, it’s completely crazy. I do realise now that these expectations are far from my reality. For a start I’m still in uni and I know that I don’t want a job in accounting. Of course, I would love to live in central London but with the rent prices crazy high and way out of my budget, it’s a good job I’m happy in Kingston!

When it comes to a husband and children, I’ve previously said that this is something that I will let happen on it’s own. I can’t expect something so big to happen when I’m not sure what the future holds yet!

Something that I’m learning more and more everyday is that I cannot look far into the future and expect so much to happen. So I am seeing the reality of certain things, and I am living in the present and focusing on what is important right now.

Sure you may think this is ridiculous but for me it is right and the way that I manage to keep myself motivated and keep going. Don’t get me wrong I am planning lots of adventures over the next few months and I finally get to start my travelling adventure! I also get to cross quite a few things off of my bucket list.

For me, this is how I’ve decided to live my life for the meantime, I get to do things that I really want to do and I’ve planned a few more things that I want to do should I get back into university (that’s a whole other story). Now that I’ve really found my creative side I want to take full advantage of it and use it to its full potential! I mean why not? I’ve finally found something that I really enjoy that I can do everyday for fun!

My point is, that at 21 I have realised that my expectations do not always fit into reality, which is absolutely fine by me! Life wouldn’t be any fun if we knew how it was going to end, right?

What are your expectations of life?