Settling down in London and dealing with post-travel's "emptiness"

Hi Hiver, Hivenights ...Hivians?
It's been a while since we've blogged anything non travel related. Life has been busy since we've arrived in London. The world has changed a lot around us so we thought to share our experience of winding down from a travelling lifestyle back to the "working reality".

Getting the basics sorted

Straight after landing, we celebrated Xmas and New Years, so our holiday continue a little further in the UK. We went north just on the edge of England and Scotland to celebrate Xmas with Chris and Pete who we camped with for one night in Kyrgyzstan. New Years we spent in London watching the fireworks from the telly at Pheng's former boss' flat.

When people started getting back to work, so did we. Immediately we bought two laptops, updated our CVs and started applying for jobs. It was a full time job itself! Matt found a job at an healthcare agency for physio work at the NHS (UK's National Healthcare Service). Pheng was busy dishing CV's out to all the job outlets. By January 28th, Pheng started his new job.
Trafalgar Square (before lockdown)

Home... in London

London can be an expensive place to live. Aside from living cost, the rental cost is almost double that of New Zealand! It was hard for us to swallow at first, however we had to adjust because our wages were higher than back home. It took us so long to find the 'right' home. There were countless ads that we contacted for, countless viewings and several that we missed. Finally by late February 2020 we moved into a place we can call home. Conveniently located 30 minutes walk to Pheng's work, and close to public transport for Matt to work at nearby hospital.

Not so social media

Between all of this, our social media has been quiet. This includes Facebook, Instagram, WordPress, Steem and now Hive. It was lucky we still kept an eye on it once in a while, otherwise we would've missed the Steem take-over. After reading up about the situation, we decided to abandon the Binance exchange completely for their lies and dirty work. GOOD DAY TO YOU, SIR! We are now using Hive-friendly alternatives.

Covid-19

Just when we think life is all sorted, we can carry on blogging our travel stories and finish it, this virus changed our world. Instead of going out to explore the new city we've just moved into - we have to instead stay home for the common good. We were just glad the crisis happened after we got our basics sorted!!!
Empty London center

Trying to keep busy

Now we have plenty of time indoor we started writing blogs again. We also started taking up gardening in our little apartment. Pheng worked on making a photobook to relive the travel. We ordered a keyboard to play with but it never came due to lock-down delays. Totally understandable.
Only exercise we can do during lockdown

Lockdown choc brownies

New Hive, fresh hopes

We're feeling optimistic about the road ahead. We hope to blog more on Hive.

New branches of Basil taking off with new roots ... Like Hive?

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