The Next Chapter

After yet another time away from the world of the Internet I have returned. 
The past two weeks have been a crazy whirl wind of new experiences and excitement because on the 29th of September I moved from London to the Kent coast, into my very first flat with my boyfriend. 

Now I am no stranger to moving having now seven times in the past five years, but this one was particularly special as this time there are no house mates no shared kitchen no rush to be first in the bath room in the morning because it is just us to, and it is fantastic.

I remember when I was a kid I really wanted to move house, not because their was anything wrong with my childhood home but because I thought it would be exciting to choose a new room and paint it how I wanted and arrange my furniture in a new way. The idea of having a fresh space really excited me and I thought the process of moving looked fun as I couldn't quite fathom just how you pack up an entire house it just seemed impossible to me, I can now safely say I am somewhat of an expert in packing and moving. 

The thing is with this move I have ended up living in a place that I had never even considered moving to until August, and the idea just snow balled and when I came back form Scotland at the end of August within two weeks I had transferred my job over to Kent viewed about 8 flats and ended up signing some paper work, then I had two hectic weeks of packing up a room I had lived in for three years, say Goodbye to some utterly amazing friends from London and basically untangle myself from London's grasp and get ready to just slow down. 

My room in London

For once I am actually quite happy to be doing something that makes me more of an adult, having a flat makes me feel that I am actually making some progression in my life, I have moved away from my university, and left my student lifestyle behind. Honestly I feel so happy and content, I have the sea on my door step and I am feeling more positive then every about getting a decent job. The tides in my life are changing.

I look around me and I wonder how I managed to fit my whole life into one room, and so many things I have wanted to do for so long finally have a chance of happening. I have such a good feeling about this, and I look forward to being able to look back at my time in London with nostalgia and fond memories rather then remembering how stressful and depressing that city can be when you spend your days counting every penny to your name and realising you still don't have enough money.

This is what's at the end of my road!

This Chapter is going to be so very very good 

Rella

Xx

1838 Days of London

I always look forward to September because no matter what September always brings a change for me. It almost like September is my new year, to start fresh and redirect my life or push it forward to the next stage. 

When I was younger the school year always started in September, so I was either starting a new School or at least starting a new school year. I would get to put on my new uniform and pack up my new stationary and get ready to face what ever challenges I might come come up against. 

One of my most monumental Septembers was in 2009, the year I left my place of birth and moved to London. I grew up in Surrey, I got my education there, all my friends lived there and  my family home, the only home I had ever known. I had lived in the same house for 16 years, and earlier in the year I had to move out as my Mum moved to Scotland and I was in the middle of my final year of college, I decided to stay behind and moved in with an Aunt I really didn't know all too well. 

And it was my support group of all the people in Surrey that got me through. I didn't have my physical home any more, but the familiar streets were home, my friends were home, the trees that line every Surrey road was home. 

My wonderful friends who helped me out so much when my mum moved away

When I got my college A-level results I was sat in a cow shed logged onto a computer in  a makeshift internet cafe with my best friend, and I suddenly realised I would be moving away to London. Away from everything I had always known into something I had always wanted. I had achieved the most amazing thing I had ever done, I had got into university. I got myself through my GCSE's without too much support, I had dropped out of my first round of college and on my second attempt doing A-level my mum had up rooted the family, and yet I still managed to maintain my college work and it had lead to that moment, at 8 am in cowshed in Somerset. 

One of the hardest parts of moving was not having my parents to help prepare me to move. I had a friend who I had grown up with, he had lived across the road from me and our mum were best friends, and he had his mum too him out to buy things like plates and kitchen ware and new bedding, and I tagged along,, not really knowing what to do or where to start. My very best friend, who had been with my in the cow shed, did her best to include me in her uni prep but I started to realise how on my own I was. 

Don't get my wrong both my parents are amazingly supportive, but distance limits the actions they carry out. I feel in that one month of preparing to move to uni on my own, working out this maze of unknown territory of kitchen pan sets and storage solutions I became incredibly independent and have remained so ever since. 

I moved to London on September the 17th 2009. I packed everything of value into my Dad's car and he too me to Greenwich, he dropped me off, and he couldn't hang around long, he was only allowed to park for half and hour I think, and suddenly I was alone in this city,in a single room with my possessions in boxes for the second time in a year, with my friends dotted up and down the country and my family spread out as well, and I had not idea what the future had in store, in one year my life had totally changed, everything I knew was different now.

 

My lovely uni house mates in our first year

Turns out a lot of amazing things and opportunities. The past five years have been amazing. I have met some amazing people, and done some pretty impressive stuff and even got a degree and fell in love along the way, and still every September my life would take a new turn.

September 2010 

I moved in with friends into the worlds worst house in Lewisham, and got my first ever London based job

September 2011 

I moved into a shared flat with one of my old House mates and met my boyfriend 

September 2012 

My boyfriend moved in with me, and I went to my first ever wedding that just so happened to be my Best friends, and to to celebrate my year anniversary with my boyfriend, which was also marked my longest relationship ever

September 2013

 I quit my job in the start of the month and by the end I started a new one, and I started a College course

And here I am in September again, and I am facing the biggest change since my move to London. That is my moved out of London, today September 16th 2014 I submitted the final bits of paperwork for a flat in Kent. I have let everyone at work know I am leaving, told my Landlord in London I won't be signing a new lease and started getting things ready to leave. 

It is an end of an era, a great era, in five years a little patch of the world I knew nothing about became a new home, red buses line the streets instead of trees and some of the friends I held so close and drifted away and new ones have filled their gap, and the streets I call home have different names now. On the 29th of September I will walk out of this little flat in London and into a whole new Chapter of my life. It's scary  and its exciting, the sea will be on my door stop instead of the tube, and family once again within touching distance. 

I am excited, this next chapter 

Rella

Xx

Full Time Job hunter, 30 Hours a week Plus overtime and Weekend - Annual salary £0

So over the past few weeks I have been looking for a new job, I currently have the same retail job I had when I was seventeen, only now I am in my twenties and have a degree, and feel so desperate for something new, a job that reflects all the hard work I have put in over the past few year. 

However it seems London just isn't employing! I spend my free time on websites applying to anything and every time, re writing my CV, or tweaking my Cover Letter, navigating career websites and shooting off emails in a fashion more spectacular and rapid then a fireworks display, and just like fireworks once the smoke has clear from the sky all I am left with is black nothingness, stars too far away to reach and a sense of how very small you are compared to the expanse above you. 

The amount of questionnaires and surveys I have had to fill out listing my "Great Qualities" and "relevant Experience" and explained in detail what I can bring to the role, I feel I could fill a whole book with. If only there was a section on a CV for the skill set of " making a dead end job sound like a wealth of knowledge and opportunity, and making it seem like I am in fact the great employee ever, but I am will to sacrifice this amazing job just for your company because I am that excited and passionate about photocopying" then my CV would be top notch. 

But the thing is I really do want that photocopying job, I really do want to send off emails and answer calls. I don't want to ask people if they "want a bag with that?", I am so ready for that job my degree promised me. It's just a shame the degree isn't a Get Out of Retail Free Card.

Rella Xx