Living in London as a single Indian girl

How is it living as a single girl!

London, I called it my city of dreams. Generally I am a fan of concrete jungles and you can guess I loved being there. It mostly has migrated working population and lots of single people. I later learnt that as you grow older you move to the outskirts here.

I was in love with Canary wharf the minute I came out of the tube station. Something about the buildings, the well suited people mesmerized me. I landed an internship here and took up a house close to work. With huge expectations I set out on my journey in London. It felt like living at the wall street of London.

As a single girl the first thing you eye out for is obviously, hot sexy Dresses. Just kidding, The guys.

There is something different about guys here, there are better dressed than you, Gelled hair, black suit and tie, and a long London woollen jacket and polished shoes and killer eyes. You see a cocktail of blonde, brown and black-haired men with blue to jet black eyes. There was a surplus of good looking men, bankers (90% of them phew, that’s a hot bunch). Not just the boys, you find extremely good looking girls here too. They sit next to you in the tube. One word- Eye Candy!

The best part about London- the surplus

You find surplus of everything – Malls, clothes, eligible bachelors, bars, theatres, restaurants. The problem with this is you get into serious FOMO (Fear of missing out).

No matter how many bars you try you will feel you haven’t explored enough. No matter how many restaurants you go, friends you make, people you date it is never enough.

When there is no scarcity you feel you deserve the best and you deserve everything. You get into when things like that are so close to be why should I even think of settling for less, which can sometimes get you into trouble.

The Fashion sense

I felt London among all the cities I have been to had the best fashion sense (Not the flamboyant one as in Milan and Paris but the decent, formal looking crowd). I was dressed in office wear which was a normality here. I started wearing boots, heals, hoisery, a long jacket, suits and more dresses. You can see the style change as you move between places. A more refined dressing style near Paddington, Kilkburn, A more hippie style in Shoreditch and Camden, more suits in Canary wharf. I felt there was much to explore in the world of fashion in London.

The never settling hard working crowd

Things weren’t as rosy as they seemed. They drilled me at work. Work life balance what’s that? Banking people are paid for their time and since most of the core population working here are bankers people stay back until 9- 11 PM. London is home to some of the most ambitious people on earth and they wont ever settle down.

Crushing loneliness

No matter how many dates you go on, you will find yourself alone at home.I was lonely in my room. I had to cook for myself.

Slowly the cooking stopped and I started eating out. Grabbing food for breakfast, Lunch and dinner becomes a normalty. It takes a lot of effort in the busy schedule to cook food, do grocery management, store it and reheat it everyday. Grabbing sandwiches and wraps seemed really cool when I watched the series ‘Suits’. It did not in real life.

Everyday there was something to do – I had to go to the bank as my card got blocked register with a doctors, clothes get piled up so I need to wash them , washed them now fold them. Room is too dirty need to clean it, You run out of groceries, You but it and you find yourself without milk to make coffee. You think if there is no end to this at all. I sometimes missed the time when there was a maid to cook, clean house, clean utensils and someone to do all the petty work for you.

It is difficult to keep your shit together here and you let one part of your life fall haywire. That’s why you will see most of them are single and they will remain single for ages. They always feel the unicorn is around the corner. If you decide to settle down , oh come on this is a city which never settles, keep aiming for higher.

The drinking culture and multitude of activities

Its hard to socialise unless you drink beer- IPAs to be specific. Every party in office ends with Alcohol, office outings, house parties have alcohol. if you are a teetotaler you will find yourself at a loss when you split bills, have to justify to everyone why you dont drink. If you drink alcohol you are in for a free fall where you might , if you are a social person end up drinking everyday. Since there is no taboo associated with drinking , you will find yourself drinking a minumum of twice a week.

London has amazing cocktail bars. they are super expensive as well- 10 pounds a cocktail minimum

There are wonderful restaurants and food trucks to explore around London. You will not find very cheap restaurants here and the food is of good quality. For those who miss Home food I suggest going to East ham or South hall.

The Theatre culture is amazing here. I was mindblown by the Aladdin play I went to. I had also been to comedy clubs and I always find something to do in London- Just that it puts a hole in your pocket every time you want to explore something.

Dating in London- In search of the unicorn

This calls for more than just a paragraph. I am going to write a blog post on it. Watch this space for more.

Overall living in London has been crazy. It felt like I needed to be on my toes. I had an insane time in London, both good and bad. I made some really good friends, a lot of acquaintances, went to quite a few places.

I have checked out all my checklist items in London. Should have written more on Quora.