This post was originally published on 23rd September 2018 and updated on 19th October 2019.

A few months ago I had a complete panic over the things I had achieved since I moved to London.

More to the point, what I hadn’t achieved since my London adventure began.

I had packed a lot into my love life, having met someone and following a whirlwind romance, we had moved in together after just 6 weeks…

But aside from my relationship, I was starting to feel like life was passing me by again. A feeling I cannot abide.

Nearly 2 years into the relationship, we had found ourselves in a ‘comfort rut’. Weekends would pass by and we had done nothing except the same old routine things.

Nothing new.

I needed to feel that sense of adventure again.

So it was time to make some changes.

I had been living in London for 3 years and realised I had barely scratched the surface of it.

I have no idea how long I’ll continue to live in London, but I knew that if I didn’t start to make the most of it soon, I would regret it later on.

I sat down with my then boyfriend (it turns out we were in a bit more than a ‘comfort rut’) and told him things needed to change.

And it was then that I started to make my ‘London Bucket List’.

So, mostly at the weekends, we tried to do something different and new.

It wasn’t about doing hugely extravagant things, just something different.

One of the first things I ticked off the list was riding what was formerly known as a ‘Boris Bike’. There is a cycle station just across the road from my flat, yet I had never tried to hire or ride one. So one weekend in August, I did just that. Admittedly it was a bit of a disaster (they are way more difficult to ride than they look and not that cheap to hire either!!). But there was a lot of laughter and it was exciting to try something new.

Another tick off the list went to a local coffee shop which turns into a wine bar in the evenings. It’s only a short stroll from the flat, and whilst I had visited for coffee, I had never been in the evening. It was lovely to get dressed up, head to the wine bar, have a few drinks and some nibbles, and listen to a local musician singing and playing the guitar.

I haven’t actually added an awful lot to my bucket list yet, but I am enjoying plenty of new experiences.

In a way, it has become more than the bucket list.

Sometimes the new experiences we need in order to feel more fulfilled are as simple as walking down a road we have never walked down before, trying a new cafe, or even trying something different at home, like a new recipe or learning a new skill, such as meditation.

And since my relationship broke down, I’ve continued to visit new places, and to try new things, whether it’s alone, or with friends and family when they come down to visit.

For me, it doesn’t matter where I am in life, I need to experience the buzz of trying new things and going to new places. Plodding along, doing the same old things all the time just doesn’t work for me. It makes me miserable and restless.

That’s not to say that I can’t be found vegetating in my flat over the course of a weekend. Of course I can.

However, after a weekend of vegetation, you can guarantee that I’ll be busy planning for the following weekend, filling it with lots of new experiences…

I have been busy snapping away as I start to tick things off my bucket list, taking photos of all the amazing places and new experiences I have had. When I am having one of those days when I feel like I am plodding along again, I can look back and remind myself of everything I have achieved.