I’ve been coming to London on and off since I was about 3 years old, mainly visiting the guards at Buckingham Palace with my Grandparents. My Grandad was one of the guards that you can’t make smile, you know the ones! I’ve been working here for just about 2 years to the day, and now I’ve lived here for nearly 3 months. Yet, I’ve never really appreciated it.
So as I’ve been having a little ‘staycation’ (basically, not going anywhere abroad, just having a week off) I thought today why not go and visit those places again and just appreciate what is right on my door step!
I started off at Waterloo, and I walked. I just walked everywhere (god my feet hurt!) First stop I went to my favourite place in London, St James’ Park. I used to sit with a picnic (this time a Tesco meal deal….come on! I’m on a budget) and feeding the famous pelicans there after watching changing of the guard during the summer holiday
‘s. I bought myself a book and just sat and read for a couple of hours watching the world go by, it’s so quiet and relaxing. A strong recommendations for anyone that wants to get away from it all and just get their thoughts together.
I then headed up through horse guards parade, where I saw a little boy asking for a photo with two police officers, who kindly obliged, they got down to his level and one of them gave the little boy their hat. I couldn’t help but smile, that little boy is going to remember that for years to come. I then past Downing Street, which I realised is definitely not on the same scale as the White House. It really is just a door.
My route took me up past Big Ben and Westminster, dodging tourists left, right and centre! The Palace of Westminster truly is a beautiful building yet it baffles me that the people who work there and make laws for our country are complete morons. I don’t know an awful lot about politics but we all know their morons, right?
Now, I’m off work all this week (hence all the posts! Soz about that.) and somehow ended up on the Southbank. I work on the Southbank, I see it everyday of my life. Yet when I walked along there today, I notice things I hadn’t paid much attention to before. Performers. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. Usually I think they’re just people who aren’t remotely talented just asking for money. Shallow of me? Maybe. Today, however, I stumbled across a guy maybe no older than 17 with only saucepans, a baking tray and some plastic flower pots sat in front of a crowd of maybe around 30. He was ridiculously talented, he looked nervous, but my god can he play the drums. Made me realise actually 
most of these people are talented and it’s not necessarily about getting money, the Southbank actually allows for a place for performers to do what they love, when they want and get the appreciation they deserve. Click here for a video of said performer!
Just up from where this guy was, is the Southbank Skate Park (inserting embarrassing moment – I nearly took out an older women by walking into her because I was too busy staring at the hottie working at the SNOG! bus on the way. Please SNOG, don’t employ hot people for all of our safety!) . More often than not you see people selling t-shirts and asking you sign a petition to keep the 
park open. There’s always been a dodgy relationship between the buildings owners and the skaters themselves. Why? I’m not 100% sure but by the amount of people photographing them and watching them in awe of the sport. I grew up with friends who were massively into skating and I’m sure they would of dreamt of having somewhere like that and what I didn’t realise was that people have been skating there for over 40 years. I did a little research into the park as I wanted to know the importance of this venue for the people who use it, “Rollin’ Through the Decades” gets the point of view from many who have used it over the years. Watch here!
Next I thought, oh I know I’ll head to Borough Market, have a little look around, hoping for some free samples. I wish someone had told me it closed at 5. I mean, 5pm….what closes in London at 5pm! I walked at that way without a whiff of a free sample. You’re probably wondering why I keep mentioning the free sample, as can be told from my Tesco meal deal….I’m on a budget people!! Wasted trip.
Now to finish up, I’m going to rewind a little. The title. Peter Pan is one of my all time favourite stories, not just the Disney film but the story itself. I never really wanted to grow up, like ever. Even when I was at university I didn’t feel like a grown up, flashback to dancing on the kitchen work surface to One Direction on several occasions. Anyway, “To live will be an awfully big adventure” was always one of my favourite quotes because living is a big adventure, go out and explore the town, the city, the world you think you know and see everyday and some things may surprise you.
Sam 