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Welcome back to my travel blog. In less than four weeks, I will be setting off again! In a little over five years since I last published anything here, I've worked for three companies and lived in two rented rooms in London, but at the moment I'm back in Croydon. I've travelled on short holidays to Spain, Rhodes in Greece, the Netherlands, Copenhagen and Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. But the time has come to travel further afield again.
Croydon itself has changed over the past five years. The concrete tower housing the council offices that stood for decades against the skyline is gone, replaced by a sleek glass building. The actual site it stood on is empty and the hoardings are being used for graffiti artists to practice their work. One of the town's largest employers has vacated their concrete 60s office tower, which stands empty but still displays the company name proudly for some reason. A Boxpark and some new flats are being built on the long vacant site next to East Croydon station. I don't know if I will see the Boxpark in operation before I go - somehow it's taking them about 18 months to build some "pop-up" shops out of shipping containers, emulating the one in Shoreditch. Most recently, the Fairfield Halls, a concert and theatre venue and another 1960s relic, has been closed, apparently for a renovation, but there are whispers that it may be the end for it. Naturally, more luxury but tiny flats will be built next to it.
But enough about this town. My next stop will be Kuala Lumpur, then on to New Zealand. Beyond that I don't have any definitive plans. After five years of precisely planned days, weeks and months in work, I'm looking forward to being able to make decisions based on what I feel like doing. The only thing I can guarantee is that there will be a lot of photos. You can see a selection of my favourite photos I've taken since my last travels at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrjlo
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