I’ve never been a fan of the whole “quit your job to travel the world” thing. I’ve said it before (literally a couple of days ago here… and in this post here) and I’ll say it again.
Thing is, it’s not something I’ve stopped to think about and then reached the conclusion that I didn’t like it. It’s something that never really crossed my mind, it’s just never felt natural to me. The idea of constantly roaming around with no home base, while it may be the perfect life for some (to each their own, I say), had just never held any appeal for me.
I like the idea of going somewhere for 6 months (like I did when we moved to Singapore) or of doing the same thing in France (to learn French… or drink wine, either is fine by me) – those scenarios still mean that you have “a home” base to go back to.
Firing up the kettle, reaching into the cupboards for my emergency biscuits (or popcorn) and subsequently binging on TV series is one of my favourite things ever – especially so when I’ve been away for a while and the TV shows have been piling up for the binge session. Rolling into my own bed at the end of a busy day trumps any million thread count king size bed anywhere in the world – it’s my home. 🙂
With this in mind, I just realised that while I go on and on about the many aspects of travelling that I love, I realise I’ve not touched on too many of the stuff that makes me so very happy to just be at home! So, in no particular order, let’s jump right in.
1.) TV
Oh, this one is truly one of my favourite vices ever! Like I have no shame about it. I thoroughly enjoy watching TV (movies, TV series, music videos… the lot) – I think it’s something that’s just stuck with me over the years and when I’m travelling, I pretty much never switch on the TV – even when that travel is in the UK.
Suffice to say, being back at home and getting to indulge in TV is made all the more delicious due to my relative lack of TV on my travels – coupled with the fact that I just got a brand new TV! This is like the second TV I’ve ever bought as an adult ….
Actually – that’s a lie, I got one gigantic old rear projection TV back in Edinburgh; awful quality but big enough to make up for it (it was pre-owned by a colleague at work and lasted all of 2 years before finally breaking down) and I got a relatively small one a couple of years back when I wanted to use USB sticks on my TV (that TV didn’t even have proper HD so it doesn’t really count).
Anyway, the new TV I got is the OLED 9000 Philips TV with lights that shoot out of the side – almost like they extend the TV into cinematic proportions (the lights change with whatever’s on the TV… or with the sound – you should try watching Blue Planet with it – it’s so epic!). I don’t know that much about OLED though – I just know the iPhone X had an OLED screen so I knew it had to be a good thing! Spoiler alert – it totally is! Netflix has never looked so good!
2.) Netflix
Speaking of which – Netflix fits right into this next slot due to reasons we all know far too well! Orange Is The New Black, Stranger Things, Big Mouth… I could go on and on but you already why Netflix is amazing.
I did just find out though that they have a, I wanna say “new package” but I suspect it’s been there for a while and I just didn’t know about it since we’ve been travelling a fair bit but there’s a package that allows you watch stuff in 4K.
My previous TV was 1080p so it didn’t matter one bit (and I kinda thought I had it pretty good back then) but now that I know my new TV can do 4K (and even has a dedicated Netflix button built in), it appears it’s time to spring for that extra £2 a month and go 4k! 😆
3.) Takeaways
You’d think this would be one of the silliest things to miss when you’re travelling but (and I’m sure New Yorkers, Parisians, Singaporeans and other “big city”ians would agree on this one too) the takeaway scene in London is pretty brilliant!
You can literally get any type of food you want (even some gourmet meals) delivered to you. Gone are the days when fish and chips or pizzas were the only kind of takeaways you can have.
More importantly, I never get takeaways whenever we’re away travelling. Not even when we have our own Airbnb or lots of down-time. I travel as much for food as I do for the sights so you I try to eat as much as I possibly can from wherever I can.
Coming back home, switching on that TV – Netflix on the go and Nandos on the way over; that’s a setup I’m so very happy with! (By now, you’re probably starting to see that my natural state is “general laziness”… 😄)
4.) Family and Friends
I feel like this is one of the most obvious one of the lot. Being around your nearest and dearest has always been more than enough reason to come (and stay) home.
I just realised now actually, my top 4 all go together brilliantly! Friends and family gathered around the TV, I’m in the mood for mulled wine so I’d say mulled wine steaming in the mugs of the adults (kids get juice), piping hot Nandos all on the table for everyone to help themselves to and a fun movie or TV series for us all to watch. Seriously – this is what cold winter evenings were made for. 😃
5.) Amazon Prime
Amazon makes it far too easy for you to do your credit card some serious damage. It’s like 3 clicks and “Bam!” I have that new washer-dryer I didn’t even know I wanted or needed till like 4 minutes ago. (I’ve actually never done that with a washer-dryer but I have done it with a new fridge – which then arrived and I realised I had nowhere to put it, it was way bigger than it seemed online).
Like takeaways, the joy or being able to access whatever you want whenever you want it and have it delivered to your house is absolutely brilliant! I signed up for Prime back in my student days (I think it was like a free trial initially) and immediately became hooked.
Then Prime went and upped the game with TV series, films and music (along with Alexa which is sooooooo much better than Siri). Suffice to say, I’m hooked!
Oh and then, I found out last week that you can do you grocery shopping with them. I know how greedy I sound saying this but I judge my grocery story by the freshness of their doughnuts, if they can’t be bothered to make something as simple as doughnuts fresh, there’s a lot else that they won’t even bother with and for me (especially within the reasonable price range area) Morissons comes out tops!
Amazon Prime delivers your Morrisons shopping (as well as other general stuff you can get on Amazon) within 2 hours in London! 2 HOURS!!! I don’t even need to leave the house if I’ve run of our washing up liquid.
London really spoils you. This is also a large part of why winter is when I gain the most weight – eating all that food while doing the littlest amount of exercise possible, it could only go one way – needing extra clothes because my already tight t-shirts are now bursting at the seams (I’ve literally ripped formal trousers from just bending down to pick something up… several times! This is why I now try to make sure my trousers have stretchy materials…)
6.) Buy New Clothes
I kinda have a love-hate relationship with online shopping. I have really different proportions – shirts that button up right for me are far too big on body, I’ve got chunky thighs and a huge bum with tiny little ankles (it’s a thing all the men on my Mum’s side of the family have – we bootylicious like that), my feet are far too wide (kinda like duck’s feet) so I need to go up a size extra for them to fit properly (finding ski boots is a nightmare, I almost always cramp – except this one time in Jasper and that was the one time when the boots weren’t available for sale!).
Long story short, shopping online for me can just end up being such a hassle, with me having to return almost everything back. The convenience of being able to shop for clothes online is counterbalanced with the need to return stuff (I really don’t like returning things – my local post office is awful, the queues there are long and barely ever more).
Anyway, ASOS have their own Amazon Prime-esque thing where pay for one year for premium delivery (I think it’s next day). Returns are free so you can literally shop to your heart’s content without over thinking it. Plus with the returns, there’s no need to queue – just pop it into the post box. Pretty convenient right? This is something I can’t do when I’m travelling so when I’m at home, I’m all about turning the ASOS into my personal wardrobe! 😄
Then, there’s Mr Porter. For the longest time, this was a website I just dipped into every so often for “that special thing”. Sunglasses that I knew I would wear over and over again for a long time, wrist watches that I could wear every day, the search for a new wallet every year (or every couple of years) when I was in some serious “treat yo’self” kinda mood. Point is – it was far too expensive back then for you to realistically do a fair bit of your shopping on.
This summer, that whole game changed. In truth, I don’t know when it happened on the Mr Porter side of things, I only noticed it this summer when I was looking for sunglasses and realised they had, in addition to those super expensive designer clothes, actual realistic and practical pieces to mix in with those expensive indulgent pieces I’d buy very infrequently.
We’re talking Converse shoes, every day Polo shirts and even summer Plimsolls for prices like you’d find on the High Street. Suffice to say, since then I’ve been hooked – I think they’ve found the perfect balance here. There’s some cool stuff that you’d never see or get anywhere else but there’s also stuff here that is practical, sensible and most importantlu affordable (makes searching on their website so much more fun – you never know what you’ll find).
7.) Wearing Ugly Clothes
I love the way this makes it sound like I believe I wear beautiful clothes every time I’m travelling. I am very well aware I do not (at least not all the time) – I even travelled from Hawaii, via Vancouver and Frankfurt in Pajamas, the entire way – it was glorious!
That being said, when you’re out and about, PJs just won’t cut it.
You need to at least put on proper shoes, wear proper trousers and slip on at least a decent enough t-shirt. Travelling as much as we do means that they have to be practical but practical and comfortable aren’t always synonymous (as I’ve learnt when I’ve had to wear skinny jeans to dinner – they stretch but I still have to secretly undo the top button under the table to allow my tummy expand as I shovel down all the food I can reach).
Being at home, the old t-shirts come out. My pyschadelic fleece trousers which I randomly bought one evening on Amazon makes and appearance. Those onesies I sometimes forget I have becomes my uniform and slanket (a Christmas gift from years ago – which I specifically asked for), get some serious use.
Being at home is all about being comfortable and that is something I take great joy (and pride) in. 🙂 (I literally just stocked up on those 7 shirts for $20 dollar deals in Hawai’i last week all in XXL – they’re amazing “chill at home clothes”).
There you have it, some of the reasons why despite my love for travel, I absolutely love being at home! What are your favourite reasons for staying at home?
Or indeed, what do you look forward to doing the most when you come back home from your travels?
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