London: what will I miss?

As our potential moving date is getting ever nearer, I have been thinking recently about all the things I’m going to miss about London. As I go about my current life, I occasionally wonder how many more times I will get on the tube/bus to go into town, go to a specific bar or café, or my favourite shop. So here are a few of the things I am really going to miss about London and life in the UK (not including family and friends which is a given).

Pub culture

This is a big one for me as what I’ve always loved about the UK, and London in particular, is the pub culture. Unhealthy I know as it obviously centres around booze, but I’ve been going to pubs from an early age (sounds slightly dodgy but I promise you it wasn't) as my Dad was Operations Director for a number of major pub companies before he retired. Nowadays, Steve and I are often found in one of our favourite locals (normally the fabulous Junction Tavern) at least one night a week. We even organised our family pre-wedding lunch there! I just love the feeling in winter of sitting by a roaring fire drinking a glass of red, or finishing work on a summer’s evening and heading to a pub garden to share a bottle of chilled white with friends or colleagues. I know there isn't really this type of culture in Australia, particularly amongst work colleagues, and I think both of us will miss this.

Hampstead Heath (and other London parks)

My favourite thing to do at the weekend is to put on a pair of comfy trainers or boots and head up to the top of Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath with the husband (unless it's pouring down of course). It's such a lovely place and you completely forget you are in a city until you get to the top of the hill and get a glimpse of the fabulous views of London. There are also some beautiful lakes on the Heath where you can feed the ducks or even watch crazy people swimming! We normally get in a good hour or two of walking and then head to the pub (see above!) to recover and have a rewarding beer. I will definitely miss this part of our weekend ritual but I am looking forward to finding lots of new walking routes in Sydney - along the beach, over the Harbour Bridge, around Darling Harbour etc etc. 

Old things

And by this I mean buildings and the general history, particularly in London. I know us poms can be quite rude about the lack of old buildings and history in Oz, but it will definitely be something I miss when we leave London. Like many other European cities, I like the fact our capital is a bit grubby (and by this I don't mean untidy or littered) as I think this adds to the history of the place. Even though I do love Sydney and I'm really looking forward to living over there for a while, I sometimes find it a bit clinical compared to London, Barcelona, Paris... Having said this, being a bit of a History buff, I am going to make sure I read up on Australian history as I really don't know anything about it, and perhaps this will change my mind on the historical side of Sydney.

Routine

Having lived in London together for six years, and being in the same area for five of those, we have built up a good routine here and a great network of friends. This is the part that scares me the most about leaving - losing that routine, and not knowing where to go, what to do, and when. This is also quite exciting I suppose, and we're young enough (well I am, not sure so much about Mr G!) to give it a good go. I know we will eventually have our routine in Sydney and we already have a good group of family and friends established in Sydney, which many people don't have when they emigrate. Still...I will miss our London routines which include most of the above.

Enjoying our weekend routine of walking in Hampstead Heath before a trip to the Junction Tavern.