The month started with a family trip to Devon. We took my Grandma with us and rented an amazing house in North Devon for a long weekend. The long weekend was full of Appledore ice-cream, cute Devon villages, and visiting National Trust properties in the rain. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, which kinda sucked, but it was also really nice to just be forced to chill out and spend an afternoon watching movies. We also went to Clovelly, which is basically the cutest little fishing village ever (right up there in cuteness with the Port Isaac in Cornwall).
We got back on the Tuesday and the next day I took my Nanny, brother, and his girlfriend out for lunch. My brother was supposed to cover him and his girlfriend, but as always he is a master of wriggling out of these things so I ended up footing the bill for all four of us (ouch).
Then it was my luxury ladies lunch with Sarah, Hilary, and Trang at Daphne’s – we took Dylan and Jack (the dogs) with us as Daphne’s allow dogs in their conservatory for lunch. It was delish and Dylan loved his little adventure!
Friday night was a bit of an epic one. I went for drinks with my old work colleagues at our local pub, and then went for drinks at Archer Street with a few friends (shout out to Mimi, Clare, and Martin!). Things got a bit rowdy (my friends, not me, I was driving), and the incredible Brenda Edwards was performing at Archer Street. Mimi LOVES her…and she was v drunk, so when Brenda left, Mimi was running around asking all the staff “Erm, where’s my mum gone!? Can you ask her to come back please?” so funny, and the staff were all like “Is she actually your mum?!” Mimi was like “No but I love her”.
Before we knew it we were in Cuckoo Club, and Mimi was so drunk I will NEVER forget our hilarious and slightly stressful hour long walk back to my car (it should have been a 20minute walk), and the random people we met on the way (I now follow one of them on Snapchat – his username is Humble! go follow him). There was the moment Mimi threw herself onto Humble!’s car, and then climbed into the drivers seat when he got out to help me pick up her bag from the floor. Oh, and also the moment she tried to make a Turkish tourist kiss her. Soz Mimi.
The weekend finally arrived (lolz jokes, I finished work in August so the whole of September was basically a weekend for me), and it was the HAC polo! We had such a fun day and I loved spending time with that whole group of friends for the last time before I moved. After the polo we all headed into London and went to Home House for food, drinks, and dancing.
The next day I headed up to Essex to say goodbye to Peter (top right photo above). He was over from Geneva for the weekend and it was the last time I’d see him before I left for Aus. This was probably the saddest goodbye of them all for me. It was the first proper goodbye I had to do out of my friends, and we have such a close friendship, that knowing I wouldn’t see him for maybe a year was HARD. So hard. We had the nicest day though, we just did our usual thing of spending the day together hungover, eating food, and watching movies all afternoon.
I basically treat his house like my own, so I walked in and he was sat in my normal seat (bearing in mind there are literally five sofas in his living room)…anyone who knows me knows I have a severe Sheldon complex about seats, so I was like “Erm, you’re in my seat…” he was like “but I need this one for my drink” I was like “no, can you please move? I can’t sit anywhere else” So he moved but then he made me watch Mad Max in retaliation which I was not impressed with, especially as the whole way through he was like ‘So what do you think of this bit? Do you understand it?’ and I was legit just like ‘I don’t give a shit I f*****g hate it’. I got to choose the next one though and so we watched the latest Star Wars film (first time I’d seen it, zomg SO good).
When it was time for him to go to the airport to head back to Geneva I literally just started sobbing. We had the longest hug ever, and that made me cry more coz he gives amazing really tight hugs. Pretty sure his mum was super confused by the tears haha. I didn’t get any pics from that day obvs so imma just leave some of my fave pics from the past five years of our friendship here (we have so many good ones it was SO hard to choose just a few)…
So one hard goodbye over, it was time for another week of them, but I had some really nice things too! My mum and I went to see Jersey Boys, ticking that off my London Bucket List. I LOVE Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and we saw Frankie Valli live a coupla years ago at the Royal Albert Hall (I touched his hand, FYI). So mum and I went up to London for the day, had Ed’s for lunch (best diner ever), and then walked over to the theatre. It was one of those beautiful summer’s days in London where the sun was shining and everything was just perfect. After the show we parted ways and I went off to Jasiminne’s for our final catch up together!
We sat on the roof of her apartment block and spent hours talking about what we’d been up to since our trip to NYC and Orlando together back in August, laughing over the silliest things and talking about the men in our lives and the problems with moving to and living in different countries. When it started getting too cold and our phone batteries were dying, we headed downstairs and watched some weird ass Cuban Zombie film, and then got some sleep ready for our early start the next morning.
We woke up at 4am, got dressed, and got a taxi over to Duck & Waffle for breakfast at sunrise. The perfect way to say goodbye to one of my closest London friends, right? Wrong. We’d asked them the week before if we had to book, and they said no we can just walk in at that time, so that’s what we did. We got to the door and the doorman said “it’s bookings only, come back in an hour”. F***. So we went for a walk around the area, sat in a cafe, and went back an hour later. He let us in, but we’d missed the sunrise. I had some epic Cherry Waffles, but Jasiminne’s favourite Duck egg dish was not up the usual standards and was a total disappointment.
Ah well. We said our goodbyes at the station, and with one last long hug we parted ways with promises of a trip to Asia as soon as Jasiminne gets her passport back (she’s currently applying for British Citizenship).
Mimi came over that afternoon and I helped her with a video audition tape thing (she’s an actress). I also took the opportunity to tell her everything she had done the weekend before. Her reaction to hearing what she’d done was priceless. And it made me laugh, a lot.
Anyway, then Edd and I had our farewell dinner at Eneko the next night, where we dined on exceptionally good Basque cuisine, laughed until we cried, and reminicsed over some of the fun times we’ve had over the years. We then headed over to Chelsea for my friend Freddie’s launch party of his new fashion collection, The Krag.
The next day was my final dinner with my old-old work friends. These girls you guys. These girls were the only thing that kept me going at my job before my last one. I wouldn’t have survived those last few months if they weren’t there, and ever since then our monthly catchups always have me in stitches. My sides end up aching from laughter every time I see them, and I love them to bits. We went to The Big Easy, and ate far too much food. They gave me a super cute photo frame and photo of us all in it, and Tiff gave me a gorgeous scarf and fake tan set (“So you don’t get burnt, I don’t want you getting skin cancer”). That was another hard goodbye, and I still had another two weeks to go!
Friday was the Individualism party for London Fashion Week, which you can read all about here along with what else I got up to during Fashion Week!
And then it was my leaving party. An epic night where 35 of my friends turned up at the Library Bar at Cafe Royal to say goodbye to me, and then a whole load of us went to Toy Room for a fashion after party. You can read all about that epic night here.
Sunday was a lazy day, and then the Monday was my cousin’s wedding! I still can’t believe that he’s actually married. It was such a lovely day, and so nice to spend such a happy day with family before I left. One of my other cousin’s moved to Vienna in Austria the day after the wedding (you can read about his move and life in Vienna on his travel blog, Student in Snowdonia), so it was awesome having all of us together before he and I both moved countries. And we got my Nanny on the dancefloor dancing to Kanye West Gold Digger, so that was brilliant.
We all stayed overnight at the hotel, and then the next day I had to say goodbye to my brother! My brother and I are super close, but he and his girlfriend are coming out to Australia to visit me next Easter for my birthday, so that’s something to look forward to!
The next evening I went for dinner with C at Lima Floral, and absolutely loved it! I didn’t take my camera though so won’t be doing a blog post. But it was really great!
And then after dinner I walked round the corner to G.A.Y. Yep. One of my old work friends Rohan (follow him on Snapchat for the funniest drunk snaps you’ll ever see – RoRo) told me he wasn’t letting me leave without taking me there, and I’m always up for an unusual night out so said OK. It was very strange. The bar doesn’t have a DJ, it’s just a music channel with the videos playing on big screens, so there’s a pause between each song. Also I was basically the only woman in there, but obviously all the men were gay, so it was really weird not getting hit on (but also a nice change being able to just have fun).
Thursday eve was my farewell dinner with a few of my fave bloggers at Coya Mayfair! Myself, Mina, Emma, and Angie had a delish dinner, and it was probably one of my favourite dinners from the past few months!
And then just like that it was my last weekend in London. I originally had no plans on the Friday night, but my hair was on point and I felt like I needed to make the most of my last weekend there, so messaged the girls and straight away they said “YES”, and off we went to Cuckoo Club (can you tell it’s my favourite club yet?) for one last epic girls night out.
Saturday night was another tough goodbye. Like a really really emotional one. Adam was supposed to be at my leaving party the weekend before, but due to work and the flights from Geneva he couldn’t make it. I was a little bit of an emotional bitch about it (basically me crying “but I won’t see you before I leave!”), so he got flights for my last weekend. We were gonna go for dinner at Sketch, but I wasn’t really hungry (you know those nervous butterflies you get when you don’t want to say goodbye to someone, that make you feel all sicky?), so we got to Sketch then left and went across the road to Aqua rooftop for drinks.
He gave me a glass full of vodka and then I relaxed and chilled out a bit and started just enjoying our last night together. Obviously we ended up in Cirque le Soir like we always do, doing what we do best, having an epic night and dancing the night away. Also Cirque have finally brought the ball pit back, so obvs we jumped in. Then Adam thought it would be hilarious to take photos of me while he threw balls at me. The pics do make me laugh tbh.
We eventually left and after an hour or so of sitting and chatting we said goodbye, got in our cars, and drove home. I managed to hold it together pretty well, just getting a little teary, until he went his way home and I went mine. As soon as he turned off I just burst into tears. He’s honestly one of the kindest, nicest, and most genuine people I’ve ever met, and I feel insanely lucky to have had him in my life over the past year or so.
The next day I had brunch at Bill’s with three of my closest friends from school in Guildford. I’ve always stayed super close to them, with me, Beth, and Emma being friends since we first started primary school when we were four years old! After saying goodbye Emma dropped me home for my family lunch. My Nanny and Aunty and Uncle came to my parents house and we had a full roast dinner. It was perfect.
The next couple of days were full of packing, getting last minute things sorted, getting my hair re-done, and then having one final dinner with seven of my closest London friends. I drove up to London for the last time in however many months it will be until I make the drive again, parked up in Belgravia, and then met Kiran for a quick drink in the Alfred Tennyson on Motcomb Street. Then we drove up the Kings Road to The Big Easy (can you tell this is one of my fave restaurants yet?), and had cocktails, lobster rolls, and so much laughter with six of my other closest friends.
I got home and did my routine of going in to the kitchen to give Dylan a cuddle. Every time I get home late and he’s asleep in the kitchen, I creep in and he opens his eyes and his tail instantly starts wagging. If he can be bothered he’ll get up and stretch and walk over to me all sleepily, but if he’s still half asleep he’ll just lay there and stare up at me with his big eyes and sigh while I wrap my arms around him and give him a hug. I’ve been doing it for years, and no matter how tired I am when I get home from a night out and how much I want my bed, I can’t go to sleep without having a Dylan cuddle first.
The next day I finished packing, sorted final stuff out, had my Mum’s Cannelloni (best cannelloni ever) for dinner, and then had some chill out time with Dylan. He sat next to me and didn’t leave my side, it’s like he knew something was going on.
And then it was time. I said goodbye to my parents, picked up my 10kg handbag and 15kg cabin case (yes, really), and walked through airport security towards my new life.
I had 10 days in the Middle East with my old work friend Nigel (and for a little while, he was actually my boss), and then I landed in Perth on 11th October, to my closest school friends, Rach & Cait, holding this sign.
August and September were two of the most epic months of my life. They were crazy, wild, filled with travel and laughter and fun and dancing and memories. Filled with friends and family and love and hugs and kisses and food and the best kind of parties. And despite leaving so much behind, and leaving so many brilliant BRILLIANT people, I’m so happy to be back in Australia, and I know that all of the people I said goodbye to are just a phone call or a whatsapp or snapchat away.
Just thought I’d leave this little video here for those of you who haven’t seen it yet (make sure you turn the sound on)…
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
