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

The Book: Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, I didn't know this book existed until after the film came out in 2012. Which I went to see for my birthday. So as a result I was always thinking back to the film while reading it. The film

 ( which I will write about in a few days) was a comic zombie romance film. This book takes a different approach. 

Now this is a book I never would have picked up with out the film being made, for one simple reason...It's about Zombies. Zombies are one thing I find truly terrifying, I have only ever read one other book about Zombies, World War Z, and I found that difficult to get through as it freaked me out a bit. Even comedies about them such as Shaun Of The Dead are fairly frightening for me. But I liked how the film told this story and I felt I needed to make myself read it. 

So the book is set in America after an outbreak of a virus that has turned a large amount of the population into these Zombie like infected people who fed on the living to stop their bodies breaking down and decomposing. 

There are two main differences between a regular Zombie story and this, 

One: It is set in a world where it has been a few years since this Zombie break out and the humans and Zombies have established lives, so there is no waking up and realising half the world is dead, and trying to get to safety which is a story we have all read before. 

Two: This book is written from the Zombies point of view. 

Our protagonist R is a young man with thoughts feelings and dreams the only problem is that he's a zombie. He can't remember his old life before he became infected. He doesn't know how old he is or what he use to do he can only guess on his past based on this shirt a tie but he has no hard facts, all he know is his name began with R. He lives in an airport where many zombies have gathered and he follows a mundane life. He gets a zombie wife and some children, which are just children who are also infected and wander about the airport, and he hangs out with his best friend, who can often be found in the toilets attempting to have sex with other zombies. 

The infected remember aspect of life before such as marriage and sex and they try to mimic this, and R collects relic of life before small trinkets of everyday life, but he just can't accept that this is  it, that he will be cold dead and hunting the living. Then one day he meets Julie, who for reason unknown to him he saves her. After eating her boyfriends brain and he catches glimpses of his life with Julie he realises that that is what he wants. Warmth and kindness and love and life. 

Julie although scared for her life realises that this is something more to R then meets the eye, she can see there is something that sets him apart from the others. The more time they spend together the more R begins to change, his speech improves, his desire to hunt humans fades and life begins to return to him. Between them they may have found the cure to end the era of the zombies.

This is a great book with a balance of comedy romance and insight to life. I found it to be a really fun and interesting read, and even with my fear of Zombies I was able to read this one with out too much issue. these is a very clear Romeo and Juliet theme running through out the book, two lover that can't be together, the threat of death and even their names R and Julie echo that of the tragic Marion even managed to sneak in a balcony scene. 

I really enjoyed this book, it was an interesting read, and is has a good few twist and turns to keep the story from going stagnate. It's got a bit of everything romance zombies fear and hope it is a very unique story and I am surprised I hadn't heard about it before, if you haven't read this book I would definitely say to add it to your list of must reads. 

Rella Xx