Whoever said “time flies when you’re having fun” was onto something! With only 5 days to go before we execute our exit plan, I wish the time would slow down a little. It’s like when you are waiting in a queue and every minute feels like an eternity but yet the 48-hours of the weekend are just never enough.

While I am looking forward to traveling for the next 4 months, I am not ready to leave London, because I LOVE London. I love everything about it. Even the things that people hate:

• I love(d) our tiny London flat where the rent was a daylight robbery. Yes it was small, yes I was furious when we first got there because nothing seemed to be how we expected, but it was ours. The heating was included and we walked around in shorts and singlet all year round!
• I love catching the bus and wasting time gawking at the London skyline. I still can’t believe we have been living here for the past 18 months and I don’t think it’ll seem real when we get back.
• I love being part of the smoker’s group at work, even though I don’t smoke.
• I love the feeling of whizzing passed a slow walking person in the tube station. It gives me a silly sense of triumph even if I end up catching the same tube as them.
• I love how people pretend that they weren’t looking at you on the tube, while you’re trying hard not to make eye-contact.
• I love how there’s always someone on the tube trying to read your book/newspaper over your shoulder.
• I love that we don’t have to assign a designated driver before going out on a big night. There’s always tube, or night bus or uber to rely upon.
• I love how busy London is. I love that you could walk about 100 metres from your starting point and hear at least 10 different accents and 5 different languages.
• I love how the girls are caked up with far too much make-up that their necks are a different colour from their face and guys look they have just walked out of a salon.
• I love the socialising options available to Londoners – you could either:
  • Pop out,
  • Go out, or
  • Go out out.
    The above will make much more sense once you’ve lived in this city.

• I love how I don’t have to spell my surname out everytime I am on the phone (my first name is a completely different story).
• I love the concept of High Streets as opposed to Shopping Malls. How else would you have to guess which side of the road to walk on?
• I love the numerous markets around London – Borough, Spitalfields, Brick Lane, London Fields, Colombia St Flower Market, Alfie’s Antique Market, Ropewalk Markets and these are only the ones we have been to.
• I love the ale selection. Yes, Germans are the experts with beers but London brings all the boys to the yard with its numerous pubs, bars, microbreweries, pop-ups. The Bermondsey Beer Mile, Hackney Breweries, CRATE, Howling Hops.
• Oh and the pop-ups… if there is anything that can be popped-up, it will pop-up in London.
• I love discovering the variety of food in London. From the Michelin starred restaurants such as Dinner by Heston’s and Library at Sketch to the best roti canai from Roti King, best Hainan Chicken from C&R Café and dumplings from Leong’s Legend where we had to knock on the front door to get ourselves in.
• I love going out to parties and clubs that I didn’t even know I liked. I discovered the joys of dance parties at Ministry of Sounds and Horse Meat Disco, danced to the Top-40 tunes at Clapham Grand and Infernos, drank too many martinis at Dirty Martini and “appy-hour” cocktails at Be At One.
• Even though it’s only recent, I love writing official reviews for TimeOut and enjoying the freebies.
• I love how close I am to the rest of the world.

We have called London our home, but it is a city where you can never feel like a local, because there’s always something new to do, see, visit, eat, smell, experience, watch…