I’ve fallen clean in love with Lisa’s blog, over the past month. It’s such a wonderful read- beautifully written and so very personable, with a variety of posts that’ll get just about anyone reading back through the archives! What I love most about Not Quite Enough are Lisa’s travel posts- in the past year alone she’s traveled to Spain, Tokyo, Brussels, and so many cities within the UK too! It’s enough to give you wanderlust! There’s something so refreshingly honest about Lisa’s writing, that made me warm to her the very first time I clicked through to her blog. And I’m so excited to be hosting her and her lovely blog here today! So, without further ado, let me introduce the lovely Lisa, and Not Quite Enough…

1. You describe your blog as being about ‘getting off the sofa’! What’s been the best change blogging has brought about in your life?

I do! Documenting and sharing posts about things I’ve done and place I’ve been is great motivation for me to actually get up and do things. When I first moved to London I got into a routine of working long hours and then just using the weekends to do nothing but relax a bit and that’s all very well and good sometimes. However, when people would ask me how London was and what I was up to and my only answer was work, I knew I had to make a change and make more of my life. I’ve definitely done that in the year that I’ve been writing my blog and I’m a much happier person for that. So that’s probably the best change blogging has brought about in my life – a happier, more dynamic and (hopefully) more interesting me.

2. What three words would you use to describe Not Quite Enough?

Motivational (for me anyway), varied and *mine*.

3. What do you find inspires you most to create content for your blog? And do you find that it’s the photographs or the words that come easier? 

The posts on Not Quite Enough are very much led by and are secondary to me going out and doing something. Although blogging started off being my motivation for getting out and about, I won’t go out and do something for the sake of blogging about it, so I suppose London inspires me the most as I’m surrounded by it – the things I do and see, the restaurants and bars I visit and the events that I attend. However, having said that, I love getting out of London and seeing a bit more of not only other countries but also places closer to home in England.  As I blog about the things that I do the photography naturally comes first and then the story tends to come later as I try and find the right balance between being a bit of a diary and maybe being of use and interest to others.

4. Do you have any goals you’d like your lovely blog to achieve during 2015? Or are you just happy to see where it takes you? :)

I’m really just happy to see where it takes me. I would love to continue to improve my photography skills and I want to continue to use my blog to push me to be and do more in life. The blogging community is so amazing for inspiration and although at times I definitely get a little jealous and feel a little inadequate looking at the lives of so many phenomenal people, it challenges me to be better and to work harder at what I do in life and at what I’m putting out there.

5. What’re the best things about living in London? Will you share with us your three favourite places to visit at the weekend? Any secret haunts we should know about?

I think the best thing for me has to be the ability to really pursue my career. Although it frustrates me at times, I genuinely love my job and I feel so fortunate to be able to say that. Outside of work, one of the best things has to be the fact that London has pretty much everything you could ever want or need. For a girl who comes from a relatively large town which doesn’t even have a bookshop, it’s amazing to just be able to nip out and buy anything you need without having to either travel miles or order it online. Another thing I love is that I’m so close to all the events that are going on, so there’s really no excuse for not getting out and doing more.

At the weekend I love visiting the various street food markets around the city and often wander down to Wapping Market on a Sunday to buy both produce and a spot of lunch. Another weekend favourite is Old Spitalfields Market where I’ve found a great book stall which has a great selection of new books which sell for only a few pounds each, plus, my favourite bakery – Flavourtown Bakery – have a stall there and I always end up with a cupcake or brownie to take home.

My favourite secret haunt though is in the city and is St Dunstan in the East which is a church that was bombed in the Second World War and has now been turned into a beautiful public garden. It’s a tiny little oasis in the City and makes a wonderful little lunch spot for the surrounding office workers during the week (myself included as luckily it’s not too far from my office).

6. What advice would you give to anyone thinking about starting a blog? :) Any top tips you’ve learnt so far along the way?

Ooh, tricky, I’m not sure I’m really the best person to give advice but I suppose I’d have to tell people to know and understand their priorities and to maintain perspective. For a lot of people (me included) blogging is a hobby rather than being a stepping stone to a career or as a way of making money and yet I sometimes see those same people stressing about finding time to post or apologising for not blogging more when actually they shouldn’t be feeling that level of guilt over something that should be fun!

7. Will you tell us a little about your Christmas plans? :) Where’re you spending the Big Day? And anything fun on your Christmas list this year? {Can you tell I sent my nosy old questions over to Lisa just before Xmas? ;)}

I always go back home for the Christmas period (or at least as much of it as I manage to get off work) but it’s going to be a bit of an odd Christmas this year for a few reasons, firstly my mum is undergoing cancer treatment at the moment and so we’ll be spending a lot of time at various hospital appointments and secondly, I am doing a part-time postgraduate course and have an awful lot of studying to do in my time off work.

For the day itself we tend to just have a quiet day at home, we wake up early and have bacon sandwiches before my nan and grandad join us for the morning to unwrap presents before cooking a big traditional turkey lunch. In the afternoon we end up playing board games before settling down in front of the TV (often for a bit of a nap). Nothing big or glamorous but it’s family time, which is the most important thing in the world.

As for presents, there’s nothing fun on my Christmas list this year! I think I’ve reached that point where there’s nothing that’s really caught my eye lately and I don’t need anything for the house, so I think it’ll be experiences and classes for me this year. I love things like that as gifts though as I love learning new things and acquiring new skills.

8. And lastly, let’s play a round of ‘desert island discs’! If you were stranded on a desert island, what would you bring with you? You can bring two albums/CDs, two books, ingredients to make two meals, and one luxury item!

I must admit that I am not a big music person at all and so I could probably forego the CDs, particularly if it meant I could have two more books instead.

Just picking two books is so tricky though, I’m not really into music but I definitely am a book person. If I had to only pick two, I would have to pick the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake (all in one volume so it only counts as one!) and then maybe Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of Scouting), in the hope that it might be helpful on the island! Although, depending on who I was stranded with, Lord of the Flies might be a good cautionary tale.

As for ingredients for two meals – pizza would definitely have to be one of them, it has everything – bread, cheese, meat, vegetables, basically the perfect desert island meal.  If I had someone who could make it in a properly, I think my second meal ingredients would have to be for Kung Po Chicken, it’s a dish I loved when I went to China a few years ago and have since tried to find the dish done the same way over here in England but it’s not that easy as you have go to proper Szechuan restaurants to find it done the way I liked in China but I could eat it all day.

** Huge thanks to Lisa for taking time out for the interview! Don’t forget to click through to Not Quite Enough and have a read of Lisa’s posts, and follow along via Bloglovin‘ too! **

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