Do One Thing A Week That Scares You: Week 2
Hello again lovelies!
I feel like I haven't written in ages! I've been so busy for the past few weeks and to top it off I caught a really bad flu. I was bed bound for a few days, so I wasn't able to do my challenge for the week of the 8th :( I had planned to go to the 21st birthday party of a friend that I've known since secondary school. I didn't know anyone who was going, so it seemed like it would be a good challenge for myself as I sometimes get really bad social anxiety... Instead, I spent the evening in bed, coughing up a lung and aching from head to toe. It was a great night.
On a more positive note, I recently found out that I was chosen to go to Berlin for a month this summer with a company called City Travel Review! I get to live out my dream and become a travel journalist on a project where me and a group of others create a guide of Berlin for students and young people. I am literally SO excited and of course, you can find out all about what I get up to right here on my blog :) Bring on the 3rd of July!
Now, back to my challenge for last week. One day when I was browsing le internet, I came across a place called Sky Garden. Even though I've lived in London for 14 years, I'm a terrible Londoner; I never know when interesting new sights emerge or basically anything that happens in the city. I spend most of my time dreaming about all the interesting places I can go to in OTHER countries, so I had no idea that the Sky Garden even existed. The more I looked at pictures of it, the more I wanted to go so I booked some tickets (you have to reserve a place for yourself even though it's free to enter) for a friend and I to visit it. Long story short, plans with that person fell through and because you have to give the names of the visitors when you book online (and they check your id when you get there) I couldn't bring another friend along unless I booked again. To be honest, the other people I would have asked to accompany me were either busy, working or not interested...andddd I don't have that many friends. So I said to myself "Why don't you just go alone, Natalie?!"
I had planned to make a huge day out of it. As I was going to another friend's birthday party (drinks in the evening) that same day, I thought I could travel into London from uni, spend the day there after going to the Sky Garden doing a bit of shopping, maybe go for lunch, then join my friend for drinks in the evening. Needless to say, my plans didn't work the way I thought they would!
Firstly, as I was the only one staying at my university house at the time, I felt incredibly lonely. So after my shift at work on Friday, I went home home to Mama. In a way, I'm glad that I did because the next day when I visited the Sky Garden, I decided to finally break in the knee-high boots that my mum had bought for me around my birthday. When I say those boots were the most painful things I have ever worn, I am not lying. My feet were killing me only a short while after I'd put them on - could you imagine if I had to spend the whole DAY in them. I probably would have died.
Also, it was chucking it down for most of the afternoon. After visiting the Sky Garden. I had planned to go to Oxford Street for shopping and then meet up with the birthday girl, Katie. Since I didn't fancy having to walk around in the rain, I decided just to go to Stratford Westfield instead so I wouldn't turn up to the party looking like a wet rat. My feet were hurting me so much by this point that I decided just to go home after I quickly bought what I needed from Stratford. My plans to be an independent luncher, shopper, touristy type person had failed...
BUT I accomplished the thing I was most nervous about, which was to visit the Sky Garden by myself. I knew that it would be full of couples, groups of friends and families. And I had this horrible image of everyone staring at the girl who decided to go alone. My mum didn't help to alleviate those fears, as she thought it would be a good idea to call me "loner child" just as I left the house. Thanks Mum! But that didn't happen. In fact, as I exited the lift that leads into the garden, a woman who worked there complimented my outfit :)
The Sky Garden is such a beautiful place! Even though the weather was terrible, I felt as if I was somewhere tropical due to the diverse plants the garden is home to. It reminded me of the Dominican Republic where the landscape was so green! I'm sure it would have been even more picturesque if the sun was shining outside!
Inside the garden are two areas that serve hot drinks, pastries/cakes and other refreshments. I wanted to sit down for a bit but 1) I'm trying to save money for Berlin, so that means no more unnecessary spendings and 2) there was nowhere to sit down! It was so busy. There's also a restaurant that looked so pretty, I would love to come back some day when I'm feeling rich and fancy ;)
Overall, I really enjoyed my time there. The only thing I wished was that I had someone to share the experience with... but I would definitely return again (especially since it's free!) so next time, I can drag someone alone with me haha.
Later that evening, I decided to challenge myself again since I hadn't done my challenge the week before. In a way, it's what I had planned to do at my other friend's party, but much less daunting as I knew most of the people at this gathering. I was sat next to a friend of Katie's who I knew of but had never met. He didn't know anyone else who had attended, so I decided to spark up a conversation with him. He was actually surprisingly easy to talk to! So we chatted for a lot of the evening. Convincing myself that strangers aren't so scary one person at a time!
And that's all for today! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be so busy with coursework deadlines that I might not be able to blog as much, but I will definitely try!
Until next time,
Tay x
I feel like I haven't written in ages! I've been so busy for the past few weeks and to top it off I caught a really bad flu. I was bed bound for a few days, so I wasn't able to do my challenge for the week of the 8th :( I had planned to go to the 21st birthday party of a friend that I've known since secondary school. I didn't know anyone who was going, so it seemed like it would be a good challenge for myself as I sometimes get really bad social anxiety... Instead, I spent the evening in bed, coughing up a lung and aching from head to toe. It was a great night.
On a more positive note, I recently found out that I was chosen to go to Berlin for a month this summer with a company called City Travel Review! I get to live out my dream and become a travel journalist on a project where me and a group of others create a guide of Berlin for students and young people. I am literally SO excited and of course, you can find out all about what I get up to right here on my blog :) Bring on the 3rd of July!
Now, back to my challenge for last week. One day when I was browsing le internet, I came across a place called Sky Garden. Even though I've lived in London for 14 years, I'm a terrible Londoner; I never know when interesting new sights emerge or basically anything that happens in the city. I spend most of my time dreaming about all the interesting places I can go to in OTHER countries, so I had no idea that the Sky Garden even existed. The more I looked at pictures of it, the more I wanted to go so I booked some tickets (you have to reserve a place for yourself even though it's free to enter) for a friend and I to visit it. Long story short, plans with that person fell through and because you have to give the names of the visitors when you book online (and they check your id when you get there) I couldn't bring another friend along unless I booked again. To be honest, the other people I would have asked to accompany me were either busy, working or not interested...
I had planned to make a huge day out of it. As I was going to another friend's birthday party (drinks in the evening) that same day, I thought I could travel into London from uni, spend the day there after going to the Sky Garden doing a bit of shopping, maybe go for lunch, then join my friend for drinks in the evening. Needless to say, my plans didn't work the way I thought they would!
Firstly, as I was the only one staying at my university house at the time, I felt incredibly lonely. So after my shift at work on Friday, I went home home to Mama. In a way, I'm glad that I did because the next day when I visited the Sky Garden, I decided to finally break in the knee-high boots that my mum had bought for me around my birthday. When I say those boots were the most painful things I have ever worn, I am not lying. My feet were killing me only a short while after I'd put them on - could you imagine if I had to spend the whole DAY in them. I probably would have died.
Also, it was chucking it down for most of the afternoon. After visiting the Sky Garden. I had planned to go to Oxford Street for shopping and then meet up with the birthday girl, Katie. Since I didn't fancy having to walk around in the rain, I decided just to go to Stratford Westfield instead so I wouldn't turn up to the party looking like a wet rat. My feet were hurting me so much by this point that I decided just to go home after I quickly bought what I needed from Stratford. My plans to be an independent luncher, shopper, touristy type person had failed...
BUT I accomplished the thing I was most nervous about, which was to visit the Sky Garden by myself. I knew that it would be full of couples, groups of friends and families. And I had this horrible image of everyone staring at the girl who decided to go alone. My mum didn't help to alleviate those fears, as she thought it would be a good idea to call me "loner child" just as I left the house. Thanks Mum! But that didn't happen. In fact, as I exited the lift that leads into the garden, a woman who worked there complimented my outfit :)
The Sky Garden is such a beautiful place! Even though the weather was terrible, I felt as if I was somewhere tropical due to the diverse plants the garden is home to. It reminded me of the Dominican Republic where the landscape was so green! I'm sure it would have been even more picturesque if the sun was shining outside!
 |
| oh London, why so grey? |
Inside the garden are two areas that serve hot drinks, pastries/cakes and other refreshments. I wanted to sit down for a bit but 1) I'm trying to save money for Berlin, so that means no more unnecessary spendings and 2) there was nowhere to sit down! It was so busy. There's also a restaurant that looked so pretty, I would love to come back some day when I'm feeling rich and fancy ;)
Overall, I really enjoyed my time there. The only thing I wished was that I had someone to share the experience with... but I would definitely return again (especially since it's free!) so next time, I can drag someone alone with me haha.
Later that evening, I decided to challenge myself again since I hadn't done my challenge the week before. In a way, it's what I had planned to do at my other friend's party, but much less daunting as I knew most of the people at this gathering. I was sat next to a friend of Katie's who I knew of but had never met. He didn't know anyone else who had attended, so I decided to spark up a conversation with him. He was actually surprisingly easy to talk to! So we chatted for a lot of the evening. Convincing myself that strangers aren't so scary one person at a time!
And that's all for today! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be so busy with coursework deadlines that I might not be able to blog as much, but I will definitely try!
Until next time,
Tay x
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