Life Abroad

Warning: this post contains sad themes and frequent coarse language. What an exhausting week this has been. I thought it’d be nice to share it with you to paint that richer picture I keep talking about, but please don’t expect an uplifting message coming out of it. Also, it'll be cathartic for me to have a rant  J Let’s begin from last weekend  – Saturday: I went to Copenhagen for the weekend for a friend’s 30 th birthday. The day was full of hygge , including a home-cooked breakfast, intriguing Danish cuisine and cosy downtime at home. Then we ramped things for the house party at night. The party was so cool. Danish people are SO cool. Very chilled vibe, not a rager, which I liked. It was nice socialising with the Danes as they don’t faf around with idle chit-chat (as I’ve noticed Brits like to do), but rather dig deeper in discussions. 3am: sophisticated drunk. At some point during the night a thought struck me that may make a good blog post… who a...

Wouldn’t it be nice to live a carefree life? Where you have no troubles and can be whoever it is you want to be. Well there is a place, and that place is called Neverland… but if you’re Aussie and looking for a place that’s a bit easier to find, then London might just be it. What is it that attracts hoards of Aussies to take the well-trodden path of a “two-year stint in London”? What’s the appeal? Well, I think it’s the possibility of finding Neverland. A place where you can leave your previous life behind and create a new one. A few friends have described it as a fantasy world. They no longer have the pressures of living a routine life in Sydney where their story reads like a script. “You want me to describe myself? Oh, well, I work [enter comfortable job] and live [enter convenient place], my friends are [enter established social group] and this is my lifestyle [enter a routine lifestyle]” This is all great. But I think a lot of people move to London to break all...

I got a job! Yessss. This will take the pressure off job hunting, which honestly sucks. Whilst the liberty and freedom of being employed (read: whiling away days doing sfa + “job hunting”) was fantastic, the security of knowing I have a purpose in the world, in the form of a job I’m passionate about, is nice. From next Monday I will be a Sustainability Manager at JLL. In the role, I’ll be aiming to embed sustainability strategies across large portfolios of buildings. This might mean energy efficiency schemes, fitout improvements for the health and wellbeing of occupants, energy/water data reporting for CSG etc… I think. It’s great because it’s similar to what I was doing back at the GBCA and I’ll hopefully be able to affect positive change across large swathes of buildings.   Here is an accurate representation of what I’ll be doing most days: I'll let you know if the job really does meet my expectations once I get settled in :-)

How do you explore a new city? Do you:     A)  Research a few weeks in advance and plan a considered itinerary? or     B)  Sort through the top sights on TripAdvisor and check out the ones that appeal? or     C)   Plan your trip around meals based on friends’ advice and Google ratings? Well Rohan and I had limited time in London so we chose Option C, the winner’s option. London is amazing for the culinary diversity on offer and we wanted to make the most of it. We had to pack in as much good food as we could – wasting a meal on an “ok” meal was not allowed. So one day we set off early to begin our foodie adventure – Breakfast @ Australian café (Granger & Co.) With a dose of Australiana in our bellies and the twang of Aussie accents from the waitstaff ringing in our ears, we planned a route to our lunch stop. We had time for sightseeing, including a nice bike ride, however this had to fit within the constraint...

Don’t you hate it when you set yourself up for failure? When you set out to do something with the best intentions, but then fall short. Well I do that all the time… and I’m afraid I may be doing it with this blog! Apologies for not sticking to my fortnightly schedule – I know all you loyal readers are itching for a dose of Karl ;-) Instead, I’ve been consumed with job hunting but here’s a quick update… In the midst of job hunting, and in a bid to deplete my savings even faster, I went to Scotland! Scotland with my two best mates!! It was fantastic spending quality time with these two jokers, which is increasingly hard to come by when we have different life trajectories. Big thanks goes to Meenal for making this all happen, just to surprise Rohan for his 30th – thanks Meenal! Then... versus now. We caught a quick flight up to beautiful Edinburgh to kick off the weekend. Edinburgh was fantastic – medieval city charm, good nightlife, beautiful views, a freak...

Reader: cool blog, Karl! Though there’s one thing I don’t get… Karl: Thanks, Reader! What’s that? Reader: why is it called “more than a thousand words”? Karl: *faces washes over with anger, reaches into trenchcoat whilst laughing hysterically* Reader: whoa, please don’t shoot me; I’m just a curious reader! Karl: *pulls out phone and navigates to this blog post* Good question, where did the blog title come from and why am I even writing a blog? The saying goes that “a picture tells a thousand words”. So often these days we tell entire experiences through pictures e.g. a holiday, a wedding, a life-change. But are a thousand words enough to tell the entire experience? I’m not so sure. The picture that’s taken and shared with friends will generally be the perfect one, which will generally convey a positive message – the “picture perfect moment”. But summarising that experience into a perfect picture literally crops out the depth of that experience. If you just focus on the posit...

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog :-) This week I arrived in London to begin a new life. Saying goodbye to everyone at home was bittersweet – I was sent off with so many well wishes, but at the same time I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with everyone as much as I’d like. This blog is aiming to make the experience less bitter and a little sweeter! If all my friends and family have a genuine interest in wishing me well, why should I keep this experience to myself? Wouldn’t it be cool if I could share this experience with you, so that in some way I’m bringing you along for the ride? I think that’d be cool, and that’s why I’m writing this. Me having the best time in London. Two initial questions:      1. Why am I doing this?      2. Why are you reading this? Why I’m doing this – moving to London, that is – is to take a calculated risk. I’m so lucky at this point in my life (e.g. financially stable, limited responsibili...