Sessions Arts Club, age in a big city and sources of inspiration
“In Melbourne, 29 feels like the age to buy a house + get married. In London, 29 feels young – very young”
Ciao!
Another week. Another blur of work, friends, and life in this wild city. It’s my final full week in London before I’m back in Australia for a month. I’ve made a point to soak up these final moments. This has meant spending time with friends, dining at a bunch of new places I’ve wanted to try, and embodying a state of gratitude as the sky catapults to darkness at an early 4pm.
Before we get into the good stuff, I’d like to mention a few hotspots I went to this week. First, Bar Termini in Soho was a vibe. It’s a negroni bar (could there be a more perfect place?) and the Italian waiters truly do this place justice.
I also had a midweek dinner at Sessions Arts Club which was high on my list. The wine and aesthetics lived up to the hype. The food was good, too. Smaller portions but well-priced. I’d love to go again during the day because I think the décor would be gorgeous in the sunlight.
I appreciated the layout: tables of 2 were on the ground floor, and all group tables were on the first. I did, at times, question the crowd (got to love groups of European girls taking Instagram photos in the bathrooms…) But it wasn’t enough to deter me from going again. Perhaps, for a nice long lunch on a weekend with friends? Oh, and the chocolate dessert was a highlight.
(If you want more London recommendations, I shared my East London go-to’s with Fashion Journal a few weeks ago – can find them here)
Now onto the good stuff.
Agenda for today’s letter:
Age in a big city
Sources of inspiration
Age in a big city
Age, individual life paths and upending the convention of when to ‘settle down’
I had a gorgeous dinner party at my friends’ place last week. We had long conversations about what makes a good members’ club, upcoming Christmas parties, and our friends who are moving, or are likely to move, to which city and when.
Perhaps because I’m heading back home to Australia for the summer, but this has felt like a trending conversation of late. Whether it’s over dinner with girlfriends, in text threads with my sister, or at the pub with my boyfriend’s mates, it appears many of us in these big cities are talking about the same thing: age, individual paths and upending the convention of when to settle down.
Being an expat in a city like London or New York, you’re constantly meeting people similar to you. We’re in our late twenties and thirties and unapologetically eschewing the traditional path of ‘settling down, getting married, buying a house.’ We’re living out our dreams of a ‘bigger life’ in a ‘bigger city’ and upending ideals of convention in the process.
It can, at times, feel like this truncated early adulthood. One that extends far beyond the years of 18 – 25 and deep into our late twenties, frivolous thirties and fabulous forties. We feel young and carefree – with no responsibility or consequence in sight. Except this time around, we all have money, careers and life experience behind us.
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