After eight unforgettable years, we’ve packed up our lives, handed back the keys, and waved goodbye to London. When we left Edinburgh in 2016, young, ambitious and to be honest a little terrified, we couldn’t have imagined how much this city would shape us – not just as individuals, but as a couple. Five apartments, five jobs, one global pandemic and countless adventures later, we’re closing this chapter and stepping boldly into the next.

London has been everything to us. From our first flat in Stratford to riverside strolls in Greenwich, every neighborhood we stayed in holds a piece of our story. We’ve called this city home in more ways than one. We’ve ticked off the sights – Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and uncovered local treasures only true Londoners know about. We’ve braved the rush hour madness of the Tube, debated the merits of a Pret coffee subscription, and yes, had far too many overpriced cocktails at fancy bars. London was where we learned to live as gay men, and be proud of that, celebrating that pride year after year, dancing in the streets of Soho. It’s where we learned how to protest at the Houses of Parliament for the causes and issues that mattered to us and be involved in the debates that were happening around us.

London wasn’t just where we navigated our 20s or simply the backdrop to our lives; it was where we built our relationship. We fell in love whilst we braved that rush hour madness, the late-night Tube rides and the Thames riverside strolls. It’s where we celebrated new jobs and promotions, it’s where we supported each other through some tough times, it’s where we built the foundations of our lives and it’s where we have made memories that will stick with us for the rest of our lives. It’s where we began to ponder the future and where Ash bought the engagement ring that would end in a proposal, and it’s where we spent endless hours planning a wedding that would mark the start of forever. London saw us grow – not just into who we are, but into who we want to be. London, you taught us resilience, how to thrive in the hustle, and how to truly appreciate the silence on a calm Sunday morning. As a good friend said to us during our wedding ceremony, quoting Taylor Swift (obviously), you can hear it in the silence.

It was in these quieter moments that made London truly ours. It was the strolls through the Olympic Park where we would imagine the next steps of our journey or the quiet Sunday mornings, enjoying a coffee in bed as we watched the sunrise over the Prime Meridian, reminding us that there’s a whole world out there waiting for us.

As much as we have loved London, we’ve always known it was a chapter, not the whole story. Taylor also said, “You can’t make a home out of somebody else’s house.” So, after building and rebuilding our lives here, it’s time for us to build something new – somewhere new.

This blog is the start of that something new – something bigger than us. We are tired of asking ourselves ‘What if?”, so we’ve traded the security of the familiar for the thrill of the unknown. Mark Twain so perfectly said: “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did.” So here we are, after years of dreaming and one failed attempt at emigrating to Canada (maybe we’ll talk about that in a later post!) we are ready to catch the trade winds in our sails and explore places we’ve only ever dreamed of.

Of course, leaving isn’t easy. We’ll miss our family and friends deeply – their laughter, their warmth, their constant support. We’ll miss having a good pint in the pub and winning pub quizzes, we’ll miss the hustle and bustle of the City and the riverside strolls. We’ll miss the nights we gazed up at the stars, wondering what was next for us, and the Olympic Park walks where we dared to dream of something bigger. This journey is a leap of faith, it’s about chasing freedom, it’s a chance to grow and it’s about the pursuit of stories worth telling.

We hope this blog becomes a place where we share the highs, the occasional low and everything in between. There will be missed buses, flights and trains, unfamiliar foods, moments we’ll laugh about for years to come and moments where we will have no idea what we are doing. We’ll figure out how to live out a backpack, decipher unfamiliar maps and how to have conversations in numerous languages. There will be breathtaking adventures, quiet moments of joy, and the chance to remind ourselves how big this leap was in the first place.

So this is us, stepping into the unknown. Here’s to whatever comes next. London, you’ll always be part of our story, but for now, it’s time to write that next chapter. We’re off the see the world. That open road is softly calling… (IYKYK). And to everyone reading this, stay tuned. The best is yet to come.

So Long, London But It’s Time To Go

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