Goodbye London

I've officially vacated London and returned to my parents place in Manchester for the duration of my stay in the UK. My last day in London was great. It consisted of the send-off presentation from work, several beers at lunch-time, a 'Team Pasta Meeting' in the afternoon and an extremely sentimental leaving party. A few tears were shed at the party, many hugs were exchanged and, between us, many gallons of beer were copiously drunk. It was a day I will always remember with a true sense of poignancy; or at least the parts of the night I can recall...

My experience of London has been special to me in more ways than I can describe here, without writing a thesis. Before I arrived to live in London I’d already landed a job with a reasonably lucrative contractor salary. My attitude towards the job came alongside a hefty ambition to make lots of money and buy luxurious material things. I wanted to save a high proportion of my salary, invest it, make even more money, retire early and be comfortably rich. Of course it all went horribly wrong, and by the time I went to live in France for a while, I was over £20,000 in debt with no assets to compensate for it. My salary had also been downsized, due to switching from contractor to permanent, and I really knew that something inside me had to change.

So I bucked up my ideas! 

I started to detach myself mentally from the need for money and luxuries. Admittedly it isn’t something that happened overnight. Although the debt was the major catalyst for the change, it wasn’t the only catalyst. The chances I had to travel to Borneo, Tanzania and rural Morocco allowed me to see a different side of some poorer countries, rarely portrayed by the media. Although the poor there suffer many more hardships than most of us in western civilisation, they didn’t seem to have lost the ability to laugh and smile. They seemed so much happier than us, and this paradox has amazed me for as long as I’ve been travelling. As I started to do more and more hostel travelling, I gained an inkling of why this is the case. Things seem more satisfying when they are kept simple.

I admit however, that although my feelings towards money have changed, I am a little of a spendthrift. Although I may have convinced myself that I don’t need the next i-phone, i-pad or high definition television, under many circumstances, I find it hard not to spend. I lived a very convenient lifestyle in London. For a while I managed to convince myself to live cheaply and, with the help of my parents, managed to clear the debt. However, I started again to buy expensive food and drink towards the end of my stay, and I am not sure I’ll ever truly be able to live without small luxuries.

In Korea I will have less money, but perhaps more disposable income, given my accommodation will be provided. I’ve made a promise to myself that I’m only going to spend the money on living and other things which are truly value. The challenge to me is keeping this promise. There will be lots of temptation over there to spend money on cheap home electronics. I will be interested to see if I manage to uphold this challenge, and take a good profit away from Korea, which I can spend on truly valuable things.

Anyway, went off on a rant a little there, and wanted to say that I really had a good time in London. I met lots of interesting people, especially those who encouraged me to travel and fuelled my passion to see the world. Goodbye to London and all of my good friends there. I will truly miss you and promise I will come back to visit.