A Slow and Rainy January Day in London

It was not warm, sunny, light or dry in Dartford at 7.32am this morning

Earlier today, as I was sitting at work and planning my activities for our financial year end, I realised with a jolt that I had been in South Africa just seven short days ago. I peered through the skylight above me at an interminable grey sky and listened to the sound of the rain drumming against the panes of glass. In my overactive imagination, I pictured the glass finally giving way and me drowning in a deluge of rain, sleet and snow; the victim of a never-ending London winter. As difficult as it has been to settle back into the rhythm and darkness of London after a glorious trip to sunny South Africa, I must admit that the break did me the world of good with respect to my job and I was soon immersed in my work and figures again.

I’ve been chatting to some of my blogging friends too and may of us are feeling slightly unsettled after returning from holiday this year. It is a new year and this is going to be the most exciting and challenging year yet for me as a tourist and blogger because I have to balance the desire to see the world against a full-time job, studying and of course, friends and family. In the next couple of years I could also take a year off to study full-time and that has a major impact on whether or not I can afford to travel. I’ve decided therefore to reconnect with the purpose of this blog and to start over again.

I had two aims when I started Emm in London:

• To always see London, my new hometown, through the eyes of a tourist – to marvel at the sites and attractions here and to not get complacent about living and working in one of the greatest cities on the planet.
• To appreciate the travel opportunities that living in London presented and to record and share my travels around London, Great Britain, Europe and beyond.

If you know anything at all about me, it is that I have the tiniest attention span ever and I have never been able to tolerate doing one thing for long.  I only mention this because I am sure that you have noticed that I alternate my posts between my various adventures and I hope that isn’t too irritating for my readers.  It kind of keeps it all alive for me and reminds me of the wonderful things I have seen. With that in mind, you can still expect posts about London, South Africa, Serbia, Isle of Wight and Scotland in the next couple of months.

As always, I truly appreciate the friends and fellow bloggers that I have met through this blog.  You are the inspiration for both my travels and my blogging. Here’s to an incredible 2011 and sharing our adventures as we all travel the world and see our cities and towns through the eyes of a tourist.

Which Camera?

The time has come to buy a new camera but I keep procrastinating and delaying because there are just so many different models to choose from.  I’m also a bit frustrated at the moment because no matter how much my photography has improved over the past two years, the one area that has simply not improved is my concert photography.

Obojeni Program at Exit Festival 2010 by Exit Festival

Quite simply, I want to take photos like this one.  Now December1975 gave me some excellent technical advice but one thing is for sure, I need a camera with better image stabilisation and better zoom than my current camera.  I’m looking for what is known as a ‘bridge’ camera as I am not quite ready for a DSLR.  I definitely want a viewfinder but appreciate an LCD screen and I’d like the ability to put my own penlight batteries in.  Video is not really a concern for me.  This is my current shortlist:

Fujifilm FinePix S2800 HD Digital Camera 14MP 18x Zoom 3.0 inch LCD Screen £199
Pentax X90 Digital Camera 12MP 26x Optical Zoom  2.7 inch LCD screen £215
Canon PowerShot SX20 IS Digital Camera 12.1MP 20x Optical Zoom 2.5 inch LCD screen £274
Nikon P100 Digital Camera 10.3MP 26x Optical Zoom  3.0 inch LCD screen £277

 

I guess what I am looking for from you, dear reader, is some advice.  Do you have any experience with any of these cameras? Are there any you would steer clear of or anything I should beware of? 

Any advice would be absolutely appreciated and I hope you don’t mind if I ask you lots of questions in return.

Normal Programming Will Resume Shortly

It has been three whirlwind weeks in which my in-laws and friend Patrick visited from South Africa and we all went up to Scotland for a week in the middle of that.  Patrick left last week and my in-laws left last night and I look and feel as glum as Molly in the photo above.  The good news, dear blogging friends, is that normal programming will resume shortly on Emm in London as I have so much still to share with you about my travels to Serbia, Isle of Wight and now Scotland.  I am starting studying again next Monday so my actual outings will be limited somewhat until I go to South Africa in December but I am sure I’ll find something to keep us all occupied!

By the way, my dear dog was not being deprived or tortured, honest! Stephen had just gone out to the shops which always makes her interminably glum and sad until he comes back home.  You’ll be pleased to know that she couldn’t care less when I leave home; don’t I feel special!

Sony Preview Screening: “Eat Pray Love”

Last night I went along to Sony Pictures in the West End to watch a preview screening of Julia Roberts’ new film Eat, Pray, Love.  The film is being released on 24 September 2010 and it was fun to see it so nice and early!  We were fed pizza on arrival and then lead into one of Sony’s special viewing theatres and it was all quite posh.  The film was followed by a discussion panel consisting of a travel blogger, yoga teacher, food blogger and dating blogger.

I’ll be sure to upload my review over at Addicted to Media but the film certainly got me thinking.  It is hard to judge a film like Eat, Pray, Love because it is akin to judging another woman’s very personal travel experience.  Eat, Pray, Love is a true story based on the journey of journalist and writer Liz Gilbert.  Liz was paid a handsome advance by her publisher that enabled her to make her year-long journey but there is no doubt that she was spiritually bankrupt and suffering the effects of her divorce when she embarked on her trip.  In short – she needed to go and find herself.

I follow a lot of travel writers and bloggers on Twitter and there are certainly many serial travellers out there.  There are couples who are taking an adult gap year or career break, young adventurers just out of school or university who are touring the world for a year or two and, of course, there are professional travel writers or perpetual travellers who have managed to monetise their blogs.

It all seems so glamorous and exciting but I’m also relieved that it is not me.  Quite simply, I love my life.  It can be frustrating and hard and disappointing even but I travel not to escape or to find myself but to experience more of the world and to drink in other cultures and countries.  As I mentioned earlier, it is not a judgement at all but just a realisation that I wouldn’t want to perpetually travel the world.  I like having a job and my husband and my life and that is what makes my travel experiences so important to me. 

Having said all of that though, I think in some ways I have done exactly what Liz Gilbert did.  Being an expat can be monumentally alienating, bewildering and lonely at times.  I came from a country with nine month summers to one with five months of bitter winter and I’m generally fluey for four of them.  Perhaps importantly, I battled the winter blues and the residual effects of traumatic experiences that I had in my home country.  Running this blog has been my own little journey of self-discovery.  Friends often remark to me that I seem to ‘do so much’ but that has always been the purpose of this blog.  Being an eternal tourist, seeing the quirky things in every day life and showing my readers the world through my eyes is my way of reminding myself that I am alive and it has been the most life-affirming, inspiring and, yes, therapeutic processes I have ever undertaken,  Thank you all for being part of that journey!

Um, *cough*, I’d be interested in knowing if Eat, Pray, Love has generated similar epiphanies in other bloggers / travellers / expats.  It is certainly not the best film I’ve ever seen, based as it was on a priv-lit book but it sure got me thinking!  Here is the trailer for the film:

 

 

(Oh and in order to avoid constantly repeating myself, I’m not going to apologise again for being behind on comments and commenting.  I mean, I am sorry but I just don’t see life slowing down in the next seven days so I’ll try get back on the wagon again next week)

Wordy Wednesday

This is the opposite of a Wordless Wednesday post!  I am still desperately trying to catch up with my blogging and commenting and reading and seem to just be swimming (well, drowning actually).  I keep thinking maybe work will get less busy or I will magically catch up with everything but it isn’t happening.  To be fair, I am a lot happier and more well-rested than I was this time a week ago so I am not actually complaining.  Oh, except that I pulled a muscle in my calf three times on three different jaywalking experiences and am walking with a slight limp at the moment.  Which looks silly and I can’t play on my Wii Fit with a strained calf muscle.  So I decided not to post a Wordless Wednesday post this week but to rather try to catch up with comments and blogs and get back into my groove again.  I’m also sneakily taking the opportunity to listen to my New Favourite Band^© Kawasaki 3P while I do all this so-called catching up. 

See? There isn’t even a photo in this post and you all know how much I love to add images to my posts.  Anyway, I’ll be posting a lovely guest post tomorrow and then I will be getting back on the blogging bandwagon this weekend and planning my posts for the next month.  I have posts from Serbia, Isle of Wight and South East England for you and then I am off to Scotland in five week’s time.  Happy Wordy Wednesday!  Oh, and happy birthday Favourite Baby Brother^©!

Happy 2nd Birthday to “Emm in London”

Can you believe it? It is two years since I started this little blog! It has been quite an exciting year but not as exciting as the first year when I visited Turkey, South Africa and America and took a road trip around England. 

Even though I finished  my trip to New York and Washington just before my 1st blog birthday, I did post all about it in this year.  Over 500 photos and 25 blog posts chronicle my first trip to the United States and the beginning of my love affair with New York!

In the middle of July, I was Blogger Blog of Note for the day.  It was very exciting and I met tons and tons of people overnight.  More exciting than that, of course, is the amount of people who stayed to read and who I have become friends with over the past year.  It has been amazing and it certainly makes blogging worth it!

At the end of July, we went to see Mika at The Roundhouse.  I was not previously a fan of Mika or his music but his concert changed all of that.  It was brilliant and I would certainly consider seeing him again.  If it was free again.

In August I went on my first photography course and wrote all about it in London: The City, the Monument and the Bridge.  Now, almost a year after that first course and after promising to learn all of my camera features before getting a new camera, I am just about ready to move on and to upgrade.  Of course, I know nothing about cameras and will post about my shortlist soon.  Visit The Photo School for more photography courses around London.

In mid-August, Mister Emm rushed back to South Africa for some emergency dental treatment.  Yes, that’s right.  It cost less to go home, have a holiday and get the treatment than it would have cost to do it in London (and we got more than one quote!).  In September we moved house again which was pretty horrible and then my Mum moved over here from South Africa.  Let’s just agree that September rushed by in the blink of an eye and we were all happy to emerge unscathed on the other end!

In October, my friend Patrick visited from South Africa and we spent four days roaming around South East England.  It is my earnest intention to finish posting about that before I go on holiday again with Mister Emm, The In-Laws and Patrick again in October.  (Just thought I should mention that I promised similar things about finishing posting about my trip to new York in a timely fashion and it took me exactly 6 months!!!)

At the end of October, I chopped off all my hair for charity in the Halloween Haircut Horror.  I chopped ten inches off my pony tail and sent it to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients.

In November, I was sent up to my favourite city on the planet for work.  I held a mini-competition for readers to guess where I was and many correctly guessed Liverpool.  I visited the new Quiggins Centre and the exquisite bombed out Church of St Luke.

At the end of November, I went to see My Favourite Band on Earth Ever© Cranes in concert for the third time.  It had been a pretty long day as I had dragged poor, long-suffering Mister Emm around shopping in London all day and I had forced him to watch New Moon with me too!

December began in hilarious fashion with me commenting that it was too sunny to be winter only to be proven dramatically and unmistakeably wrong two weeks later when I was very lucky to get home after heavy snow just about brought London to a stand still.

Instead of succumbing to the winter blues, we decided to turn it all around and we went off to the cosy old Hawkwell House for a charming winter retreat for Christmas.  It was everything we had wanted it to be – warm, cosy and full of Christmas cheer.

I took a rare lunch hour and decided to get Lost in Southwark.  Southwark is an area rich in history and it was also the home of Charles Dickens.  I wrote lots more posts about Southwark through this year too.

At the end of January, I went on my second photography course and learnt about camera settings and the manual mode.  I set about to capture the essence of London in my photo essay for the day.

I took the first of many walks around my new home town of Dartford.  Dartford is a really old town and there are tons of old buildings to photograph.  Which reminds me, I really should get out more and take photos.  There are Norman churches and disused graveyards featuring monuments to fallen Protestants!

There were lots of photos of winter sun and heavy snow which were both fine with me.  The only thing I don’t really like in winter is the never ending grey!

At the beginning of February, we took a trip Up North and visited the area where I lived until I was nine years old.  I also introduced you to my grandfather and told you a bit about my family history.

In February, we began the slow process of emerging from our winter hibernation and we went to the theatre to see the Garrick Theatre production of The Little Dog Laughed.  We also went to the ShockWaves NME Awards Tour 2010 which was a lot of fun.

We got our first sighting of Spring in March and I gave the first of my updates on the Shard and London Bridge Quarter development.

It was our wedding anniversary at the end of March and we took a lovely trip to the Isle of Wight.  We took a ride on the grand old Isle of Wight Steam Railway and had the most glorious four days there.  One of these days, I am sure I will finish posting about that too!

In April I began my series A Window Into South Africa where I interviewed normal South Africans in the run up to the World Cup.

I attended the launch of the Pizza Express summer menu and met lots of other great London bloggers.  It was a fab evening and we got to make our own pizzas.

We spent a rather rainy but brilliant day in Southbank in the middle of May and met up with our good friend Gavin who is living in Seattle.

May was all about the MyCommunity competition which culminated in the awesome sunset flight on the London Eye.  It was a really awesome experience and once again, I got the chance to meet other London bloggers.

In June I ran the Race for Life for the third time to raise money for Cancer Research UK.  You can still take advantage of the chance to sponsor me there and receive a month’s free advertising on my sidebar.  I also posted some gorgeous photos of St Paul’s Cathedral and the surrounding areas.

We went to see Green Day at Wembley Stadium which was amazing.  It definitely made me determined to have a new and better camera by the time I see Muse at Wembley in September!

Finally, we spent a balmy Sunday in the West End where I got together with my colleagues to watch England vs Germany and to see the play Ghost Stories.  It was a fabulous afternoon and a good reminder why I don’t go into the West End very often!

Wow.  I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted now!!!  I think this post took four hours to type up!!  The coming year is going to be a bit more exciting, I believe, with trips to Serbia, Scotland and South Africa this year and hopefully even more travelling goodness in the first six months of next year.  Mister Emm has promised to do more spontaneous travelling once he gets his British passport next year so hopefully that will mean weekend trips to Prague, Paris and Brussels for Emm in London.  Happy birthday dear blog!

Contacting Emm

I’ve noticed over the past couple of months that people are often trying to get hold of me but struggle to find a way.  So, given that I actually like chatting to people, I thought I should make it easier.

The best way to contact me is to leave a comment on my blog.  The reason this is the best way is that I have a general rule to reply to comments before I post a new post!

The next best way is to send an email to missus dot emm at gmail dot com.  My job and corresponding moods vary greatly from busy and harassed to bored and talkative so please bear with me if you don’t hear an answer straight away.

Meeting up, getting together, having lunch

I am always keen to meet up with people (and don’t worry Mum, I’m pretty street savvy so I do hope I won’t get stalked or anything like that!)  If you find yourself in London or ever want to spend a Saturday afternoon running around taking photos then feel free to drop me a line.  If you’re in the London Bridge area, you’re also welcome to take part in the national campaign to get me to take more frequent lunch hours!

Blogging tips

A lot of people contact me asking how I’ve done this or that on my blog template.  I’m always happy to answer questions (and might even start up another blog in the new year for all my tips and hints).

Guest posts

I’m always happy for other bloggers to write guest posts and the HostelBookers post on New York Hostels is a great example of this.  In fact, I’d love someone to post about Italy or Portugal as I struggle to make up my mind which to visit next year.  I have three conditions though which usually chase potential guest bloggers away.
1). Your post must have pictures or photos and can’t just be text.  As you can see from the photo above, I am just about unable to make a post without a photo.  It can’t just be video either.
2). It is fine if you are endorsing travel sites or tools (or even your own blog) but you must make your post relevant to this site and of course, interesting to my beloved readers.  
3). I will need to see and edit your post before it goes live.  If it is tacky, spammy or offensive in any way, I won’t post it.

I do like to do guest posts on other people’s blogs too but I often find I go blank when trying to think of a subject so it doesn’t often happen!

Advertising on this blog

This is always a possibility but this is a not-for-profit blog that is primarily written as a hobby.  If you do want to advertise or push your product, it must take none of my time or effort at all – I definitely don’t do endorsements or paid posts. 

The best way to advertise a similarly not-for-profit blog would be to follow my affiliate links to CMF Ads or Entrecard and you can then advertise using the slots on the left hand side.  Neither of those programs requires an actual buy in and you can use the credits you earn to advertise.  I don’t accept ads from paid or non-relevant sites on my blog (unless you’re a good blogging friend of mine).

Blogrolls, link exchanges

The best way to get on my blogroll is to introduce yourself and comment on my blog.  “Meeting” people and getting to know them means I inevitably go over to their blogs and start reading them.  My blogroll feeds from categories on my feed reader so shortly after I subscribe to your blog, it will show on my blogroll.  My favourite type of blogs are photography, travel, expat, city and regional blogs.  Oh, and media and political blogs but those go on my media and political blogs.

Offering me a couch to sleep on when I visit your city

I thought I’d sneak this one in.  And why yes, that would be lovely, thank you!

Just Saying Hi

You’re most welcome to drop me a line just to say hi but because of the aforementioned job / mood situation, I’m often not in a position to reply to messages straight away.  Don’t be offended, I’m just like that.

Snail mail

Drop me a line if you’d like to send me a postcard or anything of the sort.  Naturally, I am more likely to give my address to people I know!

I think that’s all!  Hopefully this should reduce the number of “contacting missus emm” and “contact emm in london” queries I’m seeing in Google!  And hopefully the people that did struggle will now be able to say hi.

Moving update and London Fashion Week

Well, the move took place with less bother than I had anticipated but we still have to give our old house a big spit and polish before we hand it over next week. When you are renting, it is never just enough to hand it over in the condition in which you received it. You have to really shine the place up and make a virtual show house of it if you hope to get your deposit back! We finished the upstairs last weekend and we had such a feeling of accomplishment when we finished on Saturday night! We were just in time to relax and catch up on X Factor from the week previous before watching the current X Factor episode. I was a big X Factor fan before they changed the format this year - there is no way I would have waited a week before watching it had it been last year!

Our Sky was only installed on Saturday morning which was the reason for the delay in television viewing and we received our telephone line on Monday morning. I'd advertise my home telephone number on this public blog only I hate talking on the telephone! I do it all day at work so spending my personal time on the phone is not my idea of fun. Oh, and there's that whole world of internet stalking that I'd like to avoid. (Sorry, not having internet access at home has started to make my brain go soft).

The great news is that our router arrived today and we will go live on Friday so normal programming should resume soon. A big thank you goes out to O2 Broadband who rushed our order in on Monday after we discovered that our previous provider, Be Broadband do not supply our area in Dartford. Be Broadband have absolutely super service and lightning fast internet speeds so I would absolutely recommend them. I was really sad when they confirmed that they could not supply our area but am happy to go with O2 as I am really satisfied with them being my mobile phone provider and they give three months free broadband. So smiles all round then!

In the meantime, I'm still trying to catch up with blogs and comments which is not easy with no home internet access! I do tend to spend my days working as unlikely as that might seem! If you visit the side of my blog, you'll see my Twitter feed. I often post links to other fantastic travel or photography blogs and websites so feel free to follow me. I follow all non-spammy, real people but do tend to shy away from people who post a hundred times a day!

Luella - London Fashion Week 2010 [source]

I've chatted about the fabulous Evening Standard reader offers and discount card before and this special was too good not to share. Get two for one tickets to events at the London Fashion Week by visiting the Evening Standard This Is London website.

It is the 25th anniversary this year and many top fashion houses have returned to London this year to celebrate so I’d really recommend going!

Bits and Bobs

Hi everybody.  I don’t often make off-topic posts but I been wanting to say hi for a little while now and to share a couple of things.  Don’t worry – I’ll be back soon with a post on one of my most memorable and exciting experiences in New York!

Christmas Plans

I've just booked our Christmas stay at the Hawkwell House Hotel in Oxford.  That is the wonderful cosy hotel we stayed in last year while we were on our Road Trip around England. As you can see from the image below, I didn’t get a chance to take my own photo of the hotel and that is just not good enough for a budding photographer such as myself!

 
Picture courtesy of HawkwellHouse.co.uk

So, the plan is to spend Christmas there and take the time to sit by that gorgeous fire and sip some hot chocolate and generally have a cosy, happy Christmas.  And to take some of my own photos of course.  We usually spend Christmas in Liverpool with my Dad but unfortunately have to stay near London this year as Stephen is on call.

Blogging friends

This blog has grown so much in such a short time.  When Emm in London was featured as a Blog of Note, my subscribers increased from 80 to over 750 in one week.  It has been crazy trying to keep up with that!  As you may have noticed, I respond to each and every comment on my blog (eventually) and I always visit commenter’s blogs to learn more about them.  But Google Friend Connect isn’t really user friendly and I’m struggling to wade through this buggy application to find the blogs of everyone now following me.

Let me just say that I appreciate everyone who reads, follows, subscribes and comments on this blog.  Thank you – you absolutely make it a pleasure to blog; I don’t take it for granted and I am humbled that people would take the time.  If you are following and have wondered why I haven’t visited your blog or noticed you then I do apologise.  If you do take the time to comment and introduce yourself then it will make it so much easier for me!  So don’t be shy!

Spam

Having said that, like most bloggers out there today, I do delete spam comments on my blog.  If you are unsure what spam is, then you can visit this excellent post.  Don’t let the article scare you away from commenting though; basically, spam is when you comment on someone’s blog and don’t really read what they say at all but leave a link in the body saying “visit my blog!” or “read my blog post!”.  It’s not really a nice thing to do and it’s a little rude.  I’m more likely to give people the benefit of the doubt but often have to delete spam comments from obvious spammers. 

Comment Form

There are pros and cons to using the comment form that I use.  The pro is that if you log in with your name and URL (blog address) you’ll get a link straight to your blog.  The con is that it is also buggy and it often gives you a nasty error message.  If you get that error message, just try press “post comment” again and it should eventually work.  Like I said, it’s just buggy.

Links

In the past, I’ve always had my links open in a new window but recently I have been told that this is a bad practice and that the links get caught in people’s pop up blockers.  I use a tabbed browser and open all my links in another tab and carry on reading the original page, so I thought other people would do that too.  What do you think?  Do you prefer links to open in a new window / tab or do you prefer to click on a link and immediately go to that page?  I’ve turned it off for this post now but await your feedback!

Moving House (again)

I only moved to the UK in July 2007 and moved into our first rental in September 2007.  After a year, the owner decided to sell and we had to move.  This year again the exact same thing has happened and we have to move again!  It is crazy and I wish we had a little stability.  The good news is that we hope to be able to get on to the property market in a year, the bad news is I have to do my least favourite thing on earth – move. 

So, this is happening next week.  My posts might be a little patchy as I unfortunately don’t have a library of ready-made and scheduled posts waiting for me!!  Bad blogger!  Please bear with me over the next couple of weeks and I’ll be back with regular posts after that. 

The very good news is that I am moving to Dartford which is a lovely old town on the very outskirts of London.  Actually, I think it is officially outside of London.  Hopefully, I’ll get to do more adventuring and touring around Dartford than I managed to do around Sidcup.

That’s all I have to say today.  Like I said, I don’t often make posts like this but I did just wanted to touch base with people and say hi and thank you and don’t be shy but try not to spam. 

Blogger Blog of Note

How exciting! Yesterday I got home from work to find that my inbox had gone crazy!  Emm in London was the Blogger Blog of Note for 16 July 2009. 

Scores of people have visited Emm in London, left comments and joined as members and I’m slowly going through and visiting people’s blogs in return.  It has been lovely and very kind of people to take the time.

Thank you Blogger (and bloggers)! You made my day.

 

I would recommend following the Blogger Twitter feed where you can find out about known issues and the Blogs of Note: http://twitter.com/Blogger

A Couple of Awards

While we all wait patiently for me to get back on schedule with my blog posting, I’d like to share two awards I have received recently.

Ivana from Ohio With Love has given me this interesting Neno Award.

The Neno Award is given to "those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging, and to help others seek the reasons why we all love blogging."

Of course there are some rules to go along with this Award. Winners should:
- Upload the image in your post
- Mention the person that gives you the award with their blog link
- Nominate your 5 blogs of choice with blog name and link
- Leave comment on the recipients' posts to let them know

I usually don’t play along nicely with these sorts of things but I think I might just do so this time. I’m going to nominate 5 people but say that they don’t have to feel pressurised to pass it on, just know that I thought of you! My nominees are:

The TEFL Don for his Bucket List Blogs. This award was made for this blog – he gives great tips and resources on how to be a better blogger! Visit his main blog My Thai Friend too.

JaPRA from Just A Plane Ride Away as she was my inspiration for starting this blog.

Gary from The Mexile for consistently maintaining a high standard with all of his blogs. Visit Mexile 365 and this year’s charity blog Mexico City Marathon too.

Sheila from A Postcard a Day for her fantastic daily postcard posts.

Pule from Johannesburg Daily Photo for his tireless efforts to photograph development and improvement in Johannesburg and for delivering a blog of a consistently high standard.

Gary from Mexile 365 gave me this Lemonade award. We don’t have much information on the award but I have received it once before. At that time we were told it was for a blogger who shows attitude or gratitude in their blog. For this award I’d just like to thank everyone who reads and comments on this blog as you all make it worthwhile!

Happy 1st Birthday to “Emm in London”

Emm in London turns one today and what a year it has been! Around last May I started reading expat blogs on the internet. It occurred to me that I was an expat and what better way to stay in touch with my family and friends than to show them the world through my eyes?

So what have I done this past year then?

Travels

Trip to Turkey & Manchester: It was a year ago today that we left for an all-inclusive beach holiday in Gumbet near Bodrum in Turkey. We had the most wonderful week and it was lovely to just spend a week relaxing with Stephen.

The week after we got back from Turkey, I went up to Manchester to visit my Dad and friend Nina.

Road Trip around England: At the end of last year, Ste’s parents came to visit us and we took a road trip around England. We visited Stonehenge, Bath, Bristol, Oxford, Warwick, Liverpool and York and we had a fabulous time! I would say that my favourite place was Bath.

I was really sick during that time and that is the best thing about this blog for me; it helps me to remember the great places we have visited and the wonderful things we have seen.

Trip to South Africa: We went home to South Africa for Gyda and Kenneth’s wedding and we had the most wonderful ten days. I visited Cape Town for the first time and fell in love with that beautiful city.

We had a great time in Johannesburg too and had stunning weather. We saw most of our family and friends and visited the Lion and Rhino Reserve too which was the highlight of the trip for me.

Trip to New York and Washington DC: I’ve only just started blogging about it but I’ve just returned from the most wonderful trip to the USA. I was only there for one week but I saw so much and walked like I’ve never walked in my life before! It was a fantastic, life-affirming experience and I would love to visit again if given a chance.

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Concerts and events

I participated in the Race for Life 2008 and raised £50 for charity. I participated in Race for Life 2009 to and have raised £55 so far!

The blog started off with the O2 Wireless Festival and in the last year, I have seen Cranes, Shpongle and The Faint in concert. (The Faint were possibly the best concert I have ever seen but I never got around to posting about it. Maybe in the anniversary?)

We went to the fantastic Doctor Who exhibition last year which was great for a massive Doctor Who fan such as myself.

We saw the live version of Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds the night before I left for New York and I will blog about that shortly. It was really awesome and I was happy to sing along to the entire show as I have been a fan for 30 years.

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Out and about London

Where I work: Being somewhat of a workaholic, I try to make an effort to take lunch occasionally and so sometimes I’ve blogged about the ridiculously expensive meals and coffees I buy in the area where I work in the name of maintaining my sanity. I work near London Bridge in an area absolutely steeped in history. The most interesting discovery for me so far has been the park next to my work which is where the old Marshalsea Prison was located.

Around London: I may not get around London often enough but I have seen some wonderful sights in the past year including the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and St James Park, Baker Street and Madame Tussauds, the Thames Barrier and we’ve taken a wonderful boat ride up the Thames.

One of these days I hope to make it to the castles around the South East of England!

At Home: Finally, we’ve settled into our new home and we’ve almost watched a full year come and go, along with the dramatic English seasons! The most fun was definitely The Snow Day when a foot of snow brought London to a standstill! I’ll miss our days with our godchild, so I guess the next “at home” posts will all be about our pets!

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I would say that this blog has been a huge success for me and has shown me how fortunate and charmed my life is. I believe this blog has been instrumental in helping me live each day to the full and to see the beauty in my daily surroundings. It certainly helps me put life into perspective as an expat in those times when I might become lonely or doubtful.

I don’t know where the next year will take me but thank you to all my readers who make it all seem worth it and here’s to the year to come!