My next few months in the UK

Just two more weeks until I move and I have so much to do and loads of forms to fill in. Still, I'm taking July off and taking a few trips and enjoying Summer in the UK (if we have one!)

For a start I've just booked to go to Scotland and I'm so excited! I've never done much of Scotland before so I'm taking a friend up to hike up Ben Nevis. It's one of those cheap holiday breaks that I found on mybudgetbreak that is going to wipe me out but it's going to definitely be worth it. Apparently it takes 7-8 hours to hike up Nevis and back so I will be worn out.

I'm making the most of the Megabus overnight sleeper coach though. They are brand new and about £30 each way from London to Glasgow so at least I know I will get some rest. I just hope I don't get travel sick! Then it's a train from Glasgow to Fort William and we're camping too. I haven't been camping in years so I'm also really excited about that.

Summer in London

So the weather is kind of starting to pick up. We've had some nice weekends recently, then yesterday wasn't great but today looks like it's going to be a good one.

So hopefully this is the start of something good as most of my weekends this Summer are already booked up with festivals and events. Not all necessarily in London but most are. There's a real atmosphere in London during the Summer and it's quite exciting. Hoping to see some outside cinema, music festivals, there's so much to do.

And then there's the food. A friend of mine is a real foody so he knows all the cool and quirky places in London to go which means that I've got some nice restaurants to look forward to as well.

I'm also heading outside of London too. A quick cheeky weekend in Clacton, and one in Manchester and then a jazz festival in Marlborough so lots more to look forward to. Thank goodness I live in the heart of London as otherwise I don't think I would be able to do as much as I want to do. I'm sure there will be lots of drunken evenings after work along the Southbank, that's for sure.

So while Australia starts getting cooler, London (hopefully) will start warming up and all the Aussies will be flying over just in time. It's a shame I missed so much of last year's Summer and the Olympics. I can't believe I was travelling when it all happened. Everyone was talking about how friendly and social the country was. 

Two posts in two days

So sadly, Hong Kong is definitely a no-go. I’ve been restricted access to our flight booking portal. No, not because I’ve been naughty, but because I am resigning! Woohoo! So gradually I need to start getting my stuff sorted.

It’s also an Arabic bank holiday which means that Etihad and Air Seychelles, who I was hoping to fly with via Abu Dhabi, are going to have chocka block flights. It’s probably best I save my money anyway as it gives me the chance to invest it more wisely. I’ve done plenty of travelling over the past year so it’s probably about time I calmed the hell down and saved my pennies. I could have got an agent rate in HK but the hotels were still quite expensive. The whole trip would probably have cost around £600-700 which is far too much money than what I can actually afford at the moment.

I’m hoping that my new company will pay for my gym membership so that I don’t have to! That would save me a fortune, so obviously I want a good one. I really need to get my fitness up and invest in a sports holiday. As I’ve already discussed, I think Virgin Active is the way to go. Although a friend posted on Facebook the other day (when he tagged himself at the Virgin Active in Milton Keynes) that all hair straighteners and men wandering around naked should be banned from all male changing rooms. And I couldn’t agree more.

So I have a number of investment opportunities coming up and desperately need to get a meeting set up with an accountant. To help me work out the best way of doing it. It’s not just simple stocks and shares through a trading company though. They are friends and my own companies so a lot of thought needs to go in, as to how best to utilize my money.

I don’t think I will be getting a car for a while. As much as I would love one, London, for me, is the place to have a car, especially as I want to be pretty central. Public transport in London, although we complain about it a lot, is actually pretty great and I’m happy with it. The fares could do with being reduced though and as for the train fares in the UK, well they are just ridiculous!

Bye Bye Hong Kong

So sadly, I don’t think Hong Kong is on the cards at the moment. It’s one place that I have always wanted to go, however, it’s going to cost me a small fortune to get there and it would only be a weekend break so I think my money is probably better spent elsewhere. I have a number of different projects to work on and want to save up money as well to try and get myself out of debt and get a mortgage. I’ve still got a long way to go but as Tesco says, every little helps.

That was a subtly good marketing campaign wasn’t it. A well used phrase in society, add Tesco to the beginning of it and bam, you have a tag line that people will then start remembering. Every time I use it, I always think of Tesco now.

Anyway, I’m in the process of changing jobs as well. Again, very much in the early stages but fingers crossed for something good. I’m hoping to join Virgin Active as my new gym because, well, it’s a cool brand isn’t it, and I want to be associated with it. Still there is a couple around the area I am looking to move and it would mean I could also go to the Brighton and Manchester ones when I went to visit friends. I’m still on the protein, tribulus and ZMA tablets at the moment although I haven’t really put all my effort into getting fit which is kind of bad!

I missed my best friend’s birthday so I am hoping to take her to a spa for the day. Somewhere nice with a bit of champagne perhaps and then treat her to the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, followed by some delicious food at the diner next door. I don’t think she has been and if you haven’t already, it’s definitely worth it. Monday nights are the cheap nights but with lovely leather seats and sofas, you’ll end up falling asleep, it’s so comfortable!