As promised, I’m kicking off a new series that I’ll (hopefully) post each month: a sort of month-in-review of expat life here in London. It’s not unusual that I’ll pass some sort of London-y scene that makes me stop and smile, and because of that there are so many neat photos of this city just sitting on my camera roll (I do share some on Instagram when I make time for it). This series will be an opportunity for those London moments to see the light of day and a space to capture the day-to-day moments, struggles and discoveries of expat life.
As I talked about in my year and a half update post, I am hoping that these posts will help encourage me to savor the moments we have left in the fabulous city of London.
March in London
This month started with snow and lots of it! It was remarkable to see London in the snow, though in March it kinda felt like it should be spring already…
After a ski holiday in Meribel, it has been a bit of back to the grind in London. My work has picked up over the last couple months with meetings and projects galore. It’s not all work and no play – my London office had a happy hour outing, where we stopped by Kultured for G&T’s. They mix them up with kombucha for some funky cocktails!
We saw another West End show this month, this time grabbing tickets for Mamma Mia! on TodayTix. It was a lot of fun and all the ABBA songs are still stuck in my head.
My commute got a little more mysterious when I passed by this exhibit titled Anonymous at dusk.
The gallery had just closed, and the glowing, blurry paintings inside were very intriguing. I absolutely love the concept and I hope to make it back to see it properly before it closes. It runs until April 21st. Moments like that, just passing by something brilliant you haven’t noticed before, are what make living in London so exciting and wonderful.
After meaning to visit for months, we made it to Sipsmith for their distillery tour. If you love gin, you will love this tour. I don’t mind it and it was so interesting to learn about how this new London gin distillery has shaken up the spirits world in London and has rocketed to popularity in a relatively short period.
A work meeting took me to Canary Wharf this month, where I admired the views from our client’s workspace at Level 39 in One Canada Square.
I took the excuse to spend a day working from Canary Wharf and met Andrew after work for a drink at Giant Robot. The “rooftopia” was packed and felt very hip, not to mention my cocktail was fantastic. Followed by tacos at Wahaca, that was a great day!
Spring has finally started its sprunging here, and so my maiden voyage walking to work with a heavy backpack was well-timed. I do indeed feel a little strange walking through Mayfair with a giant backpack and athletic clothes, but I’m doing what I can to feel my best on the Via Alpina. The views were worth it.
On a different note, one of the best things I did this month was rediscover the Pomodoro method. I downloaded Be Focused and it is honestly a godsend. I’ve really upped my productivity at work and on this blog. Can’t recommend this app highly enough!
To be quite honest, looking at the calendar for the next couple months is a little bit overwhelming. We have big family/friend events, visitors, hikes and travels, not to mention several big work projects and our ever-intensifying hike training schedule. In the past this would have been enough to paralyze me, but I’m taking it one day at a time. It seems the expat lifestyle has taught me well. And the Pomodoro method is helping it all come together!
Finally, we closed out the month on our Slovenian adventure. You can read about here and in two more upcoming posts – stay tuned!
Jenn is an American expat living in London, spending her time freelancing, traveling and writing on this here blog. Thank you for reading. Are you planning a trip here? Tell me your plans in the comments!
