NO MORE STUDENT LIVING

After work on Wednesday my mam and I headed down to Englefield Green near Windsor to start moving all of my stuff out of my student house. When I arrived I felt this turning in my stomach that I feel when things are changing or if I feel a bit overwhelmed. Seeing Hollie and Ettore's rooms empty was a bit of a shock to the system. I mean, I knew they had moved out but I just started thinking about the last year and everything that happened; All the reading, the essay planning, dissertation writing, food making, conversations had and films watched in our little three bed house on St. Judes Road - and then it was just over. As Hollie and I started work almost immediately after our exams finished we left the house quite quickly so I didn't have much time to process anything. However, after moving my stuff, cleaning a few bits and pieces around the house, I handed my keys back to the agency and just like that the door closed behind me. It's quite metaphorical really, isn't it - another stage of my life has ended and another has begun.

As a little break from moving and cleaning, on Thursday afternoon we headed into central London. With London's tubes on stop due to the strike the city was quieter than normal which was pretty sweet. When we were walking through Waterloo station to get to the Southbank it felt a bit like a ghost town and with the sun beaming down on the concrete floors it was nice to have a bit more room to breathe in the sweaty city.

After having a glass of prosecco on the rooftop garden of the Royal Festival Hall we made our way over to Covent Garden where we stopped in our usual spot - La Perla. La Perla is a Mexican bar that make THE BEST frozen margaritas ever. Although, we didn't have much time there as we were heading to Somerset House to visit The Jam exhibition.

One of my best friends, Katie works at Somerset House and she recommended this exhibition and as my mam and I love that kind of punk/rock music we had to go really, didn't we?! For some strange and unknown reason I had never been to Somerset House before but it is absolutely beautiful. The courtyard was spectacular and as the sun was out, there were loads of people sitting on little bistro table with wine and coffee reading books and having what were probably awesome conversations. The exhibition did not disappoint. There was so much original material from the band itself - letters, clothing, records, newspaper clippings and posters. It is well worth a visit!

We headed to Franco Manca for dinner - a place which probably make the best pizza in London. On top of their famous sourdough pizza base I ordered chorizo, buffalo mozzarella and tomato. OMG. It was so flavoursome and light - it was everything.

The National Portrait Gallery is open late on Thursdays so we had a walk around the gallery before perching ourselves on a few steps overlooking Trafalgar Square. At around half 8 it was still 20 degrees so we watched the world go buy before making our way back through parliament square, over Westminster bridge to Waterloo and back to the house.

The next day I said my final goodbye to the house, had coffee in Crosslands (the place where I spent 90% of my third year) and walked around Royal Holloway's spectacular campus before starting our drive home. It's a strange feeling knowing that come September I won't be making the trip back to Egham to start another year of learning but I'm sure more exciting things will come to fill the little hole that knowing I won't be returning as a student has left inside me!