My last month in the UK

So that’s it… the last 31 days I will spend in the UK for at least a year. I feel more should be flooding through my mind right now, however I have always been one that doesn’t feel it hit home until the very last minute. This could be a great thing, if it only ever hits me whilst on the flight, I have no other choice but to see it through.

I think this is down to my family and friends being fairly relaxed about it. They have seen me travel before, they know what to expect and I do too. If everything gets too emotional, it makes departing harder. I am trying to show more excitement than anything and that is the feeling I am receiving in return. I am not departing on a ship in the nineteenth century on a four month journey, I will say goodbye to my family on the 1st September and say hello again on the 3rd. What a time to be alive!*

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*Speaking of historical travel, I found the below isochronic map on 1843 magazine. A pretty fascinating map of the world from 1914, colour coded for readers to understand how long it would take to get anywhere in the world from the city of London.

Simon Willis writes in the article:

IN 1914 JOHN G. BARTHOLOMEW, the scion of an Edinburgh mapmaking family and cartographer royal to King George V, published “An Atlas of Economic Geography”. It was a book intended for schoolboys and contained everything a thrusting young entrepreneur, imperialist, trader or traveller could need. As well as the predictable charts of rainfall, temperature and topography, it had maps showing where you could find rubber, cotton or rice; maps showing the distribution of commercial languages, so that if you wanted to do business in Indonesia you knew to do so in Dutch; and maps showing the spread of climatic diseases, so that if you did find yourself in Indonesia you knew to look out for tropical dysentery. It also contained the map you see here, which told you how long it would take to get there from London: between 20 and 30 days.

I guess for someone of this time, losing a book would like losing a WiFi signal. Can you imagine the horror?!

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Well, moving on from the days of ocean travel taking long enough to form a long term relationship (by my standards, at least), I am thankful to have a pretty short travel itinerary, relatively speaking.

1st Aug- 30th Aug:

Plenty of goodbyes, taking clothes to the charity shop, saving money by going to the gym instead of gin, blogging.

That is basically it really, a very uneventful last month. I like to see it as the calm before the storm.

31st August:

I make my way down south to London from Newcastle.

I was actually unsure of the best way and because of how much I needed to save, I felt bus travel would be much more cost friendly than rail or air. That was until I received an offer from Virgin East Coast, offering me a first class ticket for £30. As you can see from the map below, I hit a goldmine. The image is actually from a news article stating how a man found a private plane offering to fly him down to London for much cheaper than a train ticket that day. It certainly isn’t outside the realms of reality.

Then, one night in the Crowne Plaza at Heathrow Airport before my flight on the 1st September. I haven’t considered the route from Kings Cross to Heathrow just yet, however I am sure this will make it into my blog. Will it be a breeze or a nightmare? Regardless, you will find out as much as I will.

1st Sept:

This is it! I am on my way! 13 hours and five minutes of beer, movies and music before arriving in Singapore. A long journey that is only half way…

If you have done this trip, any recommendations on how to stay occupied would be appreciated.

2nd Sept:

17 hours and 15 minutes of layover

The whole day is spent in Singapore. Mainly the airport, which thankfully is very impressive. I will most definitely blog about my experience of the Free Singapore Tour that is offered to travelers with a layover of five hours or more. As far as long waits for connecting flights go, this is one I am too excited about.

3rd Sept:

I arrive in Sydney, however this is pretty much all I know so far. I have no current accommodation or a job, but that will be part of the experience. Finding my feet with the money I have saved, enjoying this new city and country as I blog about the new experiences. I don’t want to have too much to say in this post, what will I have to blog about then?

I am as excited to blog about the journey there as I am arriving. There is something about the travel that I do not want to go to waste. I don’t really like sleeping at this time, can you imagine how amazed nineteenth century travellers would be to be able to travel such vast distances in such a short space of time?

I don’t know what they would do on a flight, but I am willing to bet my plane ticket it wouldn’t be sleep!

Opera House: Photo by Liam Pozz on Unsplash

Window with a view: Photo by Pat Taylor on Unsplash