Exactly one month left of my 20s!! Eek!

When you’re a kid (or you are my 27 year old flatmate) you think WOW 30 is OLD! By then I guess I will have a husband, kids, a pet or two and a white picket fence...

I blew that one out of the water! OK so I’ve never been a white picket fence kind of girl, always trying the road less traveled and figuring it out along the way. But growing up in Alabama I didn’t think I would be a single, professional, city girl at 30. I don’t own anything (car, house, flat) but that’s ok with me, I am sure my carbon footprint is very low - especially because I cycle everywhere I go!

Thankfully many of my closest friends beat me to 30 and have shown that it isn’t much different than 27, 8 or 9! Turns out a 78 year old man finished the Boston Marathon a few weeks ago, even after being knocked off his feet by a bomb. 40 is the new 30, 70 is the new 50 and my Gran is looking great a month before her 89th birthday! (she’s also a Gemini, like me!)

So how do I feel about turning 30? Not bad! I’ve accomplished a lot in my first 30 years. I’ve traveled a lot of the world (just missing Asia and LatAm), I’ve worked in all of the Uniteds’! (USA, UAE, UK), I live in London, my favorite city in the world, I have stunning friends, a great job, I will soon live in an amazing flat, and I’m traveling for 2 weeks: London > Florence > Amalfi Coast > Rome > London with my family to celebrate! Not much to complain about these days, there’s no where I would rather be...I’m ready. Bring on the 30s....

I am back to BLOGGGGING! 2013

It’s been a WHILE since my last blog post, but I have been asked by my dear friend to start ‘guest blogging’…so here goes. Sometimes we just need a little motivation to do the things we’ve wanted to do anyway. I, like Rachel, have a long list of things I would still like to do in my life and writing is definitely one of them.

So what to tell you in my first post since June 2011! Eek. I told you it had been a while. That summer I was flying to Beirut every few weekends to play at the beach and SkyBar, wasn’t a bad life.  Now, as I sit in London bundled up with a sweater and scarf inside my flat, because it is snowing on the 23rd of March, I’d like to be back there now.

Why don’t I start by reminding you who I am, my name is Ashley, most people call me Ash, or if they are Italian, Ashha! I am American and claim Alabama when asked where I am from, but I have lived in seven cities on three continents so eventually I think I will be able to tell you I am ‘from London.’ I was born in New Mexico and spent the first nine years of my life there with my parents and two sisters. I am the middle child and a Gemini, make of that what you’d like; but of course I am the best! (hehe)

We use to drive 48 hours from New Mexico to Massachusetts to visit our Grandparents and extended family; I’d say this is where my traveling bug began.  At the age of nine we moved to upstate New York (Watertown) and froze to death! We were much closer to family but us little desert kids were not surviving, so my Dad asked for a transfer ANYWHERE in the South and we ended up in Alabama. 

True story. Well that’s how I remember it as a twelve year old anyway.  Alabama really did become home because from 12-18 is where you really grow up and make lasting friendships. I’m lucky to still have lots of friends and a few have even visited me abroad!

Next I went to the University of Tennessee, and then took my first job in NYC, three years later I got a job in London and never looked back.  Two years into my London life my boss asked me to move to Dubai and I did!  I lived there 18 months and have now been back in London almost a year! Time flies…enough about me. I will tell you some of the fun things that have happened along the way next time.