Chapter 1: Independence

This week has been so busy for me, setting up things like bank accounts, oyster travel cards, sim cards, work interviews… the list goes on. The most exciting part of this journey so far was when I first walked into the room that will be my room for the next 6 months.

My room

Scared? No. Anxious? No. Sense of pride and independence? Hell yes. Sure, I have been free of my parents apron strings for at least 5 years now aswell as been self sufficient with a decent mortgage at home. Well… when I say self sufficient, I mean I have managed financially. I’m lucky to have a fantastic job and a boyfriend who is super smart and manages everything else, I just have to make sure I pay bills when he tells me too. But this is different. I am alone here. There is no one to guide me through this, no one to manage my finances or tell me where I should stay or even how to decorate my own room. I get to do it all myself and that is the most wonderful feeling.

Anyway, the house looked like shit when we first went to visit prior to moving in. It had recently undergone a big makeover …actually it still IS undergoing the makeover, which explained the mess it was in. Nothing was complete, no carpet, dust and dirt everywhere, no washing machine, tiny bathrooms and toilets (as in I could have a shower while going to the toilet at the same time).

My tiny but sufficient bathroom


I couldn’t even lock my room because the lock and hole were misaligned and to make things worse there was a gigantic spider residing at the front door.

Ok so it doesn't look that BIG here, but it was I swear.

But you know what? this place had me at hello.

In a nutshell, it is a two storey heritage house that is sitting directly across a church. Apparently, this house used to be a safe house for priests during King Henry VIII’s reign. At that time, there was an order to wipe out any religion that was not ‘Church of England‘. So the priests would then access a secret underground tunnel connected to this very house where they could hide. Interesting history hey?


So there are four bedrooms in total, with three being upstairs and one downstairs. I am sharing the house with one of my closest friends plus two other flat mates (who are both best mates with my friend). For those of you who know Thuy, she could easily be mistaken as a hobbit. So she got the dwarf room with a dwarf door (unfortunately, not by choice).

Dwarf Thuy

So here I am, finally settled, working and learning to become truly independent. How do I feel?
Freaking awesome.