It's time to go...

My time here in the UK is coming to an end. Next week we head to London to hop on a bus to go on an incredible journey through Europe before heading back home to Australia. These past 8 months have flown by, and I've done and seen so many amazing things. Even though I'm ready to go home and see the dogs again (I seriously can't believe it's been 8 months since I've seen those butt heads!) there are quite a few things I will miss (and not miss) about this crazy country. For a place that is so similar to Australia, it is absolutely completely different.

Being able to drive an hour or two in any direction and being in a totally new and exciting place is what I'll miss most! We've been living a hop skip and a jump (ok, a 2 - 2.5 hour bus ride) from London, and been able to go there for the day plenty of times. We drive for an hour and we're in Bath, Bristol, or even in a different country (ok, Wales). It's also incredibly cheap to travel to mainland Europe from the UK. You can fly to so many places in Europe for way less than what it costs to even fly Canberra to Brisbane. Or even Canberra to Sydney!!

Brothers toffee apple cider is the nicest drink I've ever tasted. Ok, that and Butterbeer. And you can get both of these here. I have a friend who lived here for 6 months and he ended up getting a case of toffee apple cider shipped to Australia he liked it so much. I thought he was crazy but it really is delicious. Of course I was going to love butterbeer too, which was one of the things I was most excited about going to Harry Potter world for. I kinda knew what it was going to taste like, I've tried a recipe for it that uses A&W vanilla cream soda mixed with butterscotch schnapps (which tastes excellent, by the way) but it exceeded my expectations. I went back for seconds (only because the first time I didn't get it in the collectible handle mug. Mistake, always go for the collectible mug.) Sticking with the drinks theme, alcohol is so much cheaper here. Like, loads.

Another thing that's cheaper, brings me to my favourite stores here, Boots and Superdrug. I've spent a lot of time in the makeup sections of these stores. It's still exciting to see the MUA, Sleek, Collection, Barry M, Look Beauty and Soap & Glory stands in the stores! There is a major lack of testers though in both these stores, as well as lack of packaging. Most times I buy something I have to seriously inspect it before I bought it to make sure it hadn't been swatched or even destroyed already. Although it'll be nice to get back to some good old Australian brands (I'm looking at you Australis, you and all the things you've released while I've been away!!), Essence just doesn't cut it for me in the beauty bargain category like MUA does.

White swans. AND SQUIRRELS!

Old castles and buildings.

Cold weather - they had a heatwave here in the summer. With a top of 33, not stupid 40!

Primark!





There are a few things that I wont miss, like the outside malls and seriously crazy traffic, but I really did love my time here! I will be back, that's for certain. Otherwise I'd be wasting my British passport!