2015 was a great year. We complained about tube strikes, the night tube didn’t happen and Boris Johnson knocked some kid over in a game of rugby. Vow to make 2016 a year to remember by following our 6 resolutions, which will guarantee you a fun-filled year in the capital. Oh and don’t forget to call your grandma either.
1. Do more adventurous activities
If 2016 becomes another year of pub-home-(complain about price of pint)-repeat, then we might as well all give up now. Spend the New Year doing amazing activities that you never would have dreamed of doing before. Funzing, our new favourite website, gives Londoners the chance to try unique events in the capital, run by ordinary people with extraordinary passions. We’re talking everything from Pop Up Painting classes to Gin Tasting workshops. We can guarantee you won’t have tried most of the events listed on the website, including the Smartphone Photography Experience, where you’ll be taught how to use your phone to its full potential, capturing photos of London that will resemble studio-level imagery. We’ll maybe be able to feature your photos on our Facebook page afterwards too… Now there’s an incentive to try something new!
See their website for a full listing of events.
2. Sing and dance spontaneously on the tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKG6C629jQE
If the insanely good busker, Ali Köse, did one good thing for this city in 2015 it was proving that London life would be a helluvalot more pleasurable if we all just let loose and danced. Absolutely shattering the stereotypes about unhappy commuters on the tube, he lifted the roof at Marble Arch station with his funky rendition of ‘Get Lucky’. Wracking up over 52,000 ‘likes’ on our own Facebook page and God knows how many more in the rest of cyberspace, the video went viral and half of London couldn’t help but smile. More of these next year, please!
3. Walk to work
If there’s one thing those dastardly tube strikes taught us, it’s that walking to work is actually really rather pleasant. When a Walk To Work Tube Map was released earlier in the year, showing how many minutes it takes to walk between stations, we finally realised there’s simply no excuse for sweating it on the Central line. This year, get outdoors, transform your commute and your wellbeing and improve your mood at work. Forget the January Gympocalypse (which always ends in February): walking is officially BIG for 2016.
4. Stop complaining about the weather
5. Visit extraordinary places that you won’t believe are in London
You may read about these too-good-to-be-true places on Secret London but how many have you actually been to? Start with our list of the 7 Most Extraordinary Places That You Won’t Believe Are In London and make your way through all of them. If you do just one a month, you’ll be finished by July (by which time we’ll have provided you with some more hidden gems to discover, no doubt). You’ll visit the biggest Hindu temple outside of India, as well as an 18th century grotto and a Japanese oasis in the centre of West London! Free your mind and embrace the diversity of this special city that we live in.
6. Give back more
It’s the final resolution we know we all should be making but that somehow ends up getting overlooked when ‘Dry January’ takes it toll. Using the website, Team London, you can discover a whole host of ways that you can be helping out in the city. From winter runs for charity to mental health care support, no matter how busy you may think you are, there’s always time to do a little more. You can even combine a delicious meal out with a good cause, by dining at one of the many London restaurants that give back to the world.
What’s your resolution? Tweet us at @Secret_LDN to share the ways you’re going to make 2016 a year to remember.
Featured Image Credit: James Burns @londonfromtherooftops
