Whilst sat on a 10pm train out of London a few weeks back, it occurred to me that it had probably been my last trip into the capital for quite some time.
I wrote a post here about saying goodbye to commuting following Covid and the move to permanent home working. Since that point, it’s been 19 months since I was last in an office and, with my maternity leave imminent, this feels unlikely to change anytime soon. In this time, London has become somewhere very different to me. Whilst we used to have a strong love hate relationship going on – the hate mostly coming from the relentless slog of commuting and the love from the people, experiences and opportunities it brought me – I now feel like our relationship has changed to one of gentle enjoyment. It’s taken me a while to accept that I can no longer just ‘pop’ into London in the way I could when we lived in St Albans, although it took several ‘sure I’ll pop in for dinner’ moments to realise how ridiculous it was that I thought that was a sensible idea (particularly when heavily pregnant). But, since leaving commuting behind, there has been a small collection of day trips and weekends and I love it. I love being in London and not feeling frazzled. I love playing tourist whilst still knowing my way around. I love feeling like I have the energy to explore new places rather then travelling all that way just to see the same street and same office on repeat. And whilst it’s likely going to be a few months before I go back into London, I’m really excited to enjoy some days on maternity leave where baby and I head in to visit my sister and my friends. Obviously never-say-never to working in London again, but I’m really here for this new and improved relationship and the better work-life balance it brings me.
A few photos from my last trip in below; my friend Ele and I spent the afternoon in various Covent Garden coffee shops (we kept getting chucked out as they closed) and then I met my friend Alice in the evening for great Indian food at Cinnamon Bazaar before heading to the theatre to see Six.
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