And we're back!

After a short 🌻 Locals Only 🌻 hiatus, a few notes on why I took a break

Good evening! I hope you’re doing well. I hope you’re somewhere sunnier and warmer than miserable, drizzly London. I will be next week, and it couldn’t come a moment sooner.

If you’ve been a subscriber since I launched Locals Only a year ago today, hello and thank you. If you’re new here, I hope you’ve found some inspiration in the guides.

I launched Locals Only because I wanted to create a space to channel all of the incredible recommendations I collect from talented people in hospitality around the world. Some of them I meet through my job as a food and travel writer, others I meet on my own travels or through friends. I’m so lucky that my work takes me across the globe and lets me meet some really talented people, be it other writers, front of house staff, chefs, bartenders, PRs – whoever. I figured it could be cool to share those people’s expertise with whoever might be interested in hearing where an in the know local goes in the place that they live.

I also started Locals Only because I wanted something that was my own. As a writer you’re so often putting your words into other people’s things and manipulating your tone to fit with a brand. I love the magazines that I write and edit for, but I also wanted somewhere to just speak to people as if they’re my friends in my DMs asking me for tips. But then, somewhere along the way at the start of this year I feel like I just ran out of words.

I moved to London in 2018 at 21 years old with a space on a Master’s Degree and a place to sleep in the lounge of my godfather’s studio flat, some meagre savings and pretty much nothing else. I wanted so badly to be a published writer, to eat and travel and call it work and somehow I managed to get there. But it was really fucking hard.

I was halfway across the world from my family, working full time while pulling together a final Master’s project. And then I was clawing my way through copywriting roles trying desperately to find a publication that would take a chance on me. Then Covid hit. And my sister got Cancer. And my whole world flipped upside down. Through all of that, I kept going. Applying for jobs, asking editors if I could contribute to the food section, learning, reading, building connections, staying out until 1am or 2am or 3am at work dinners that turned into nights out so I could remain relevant and waking up at 7am to get to the gym so that I could balance out the calories of those meals and never bothering to stop and feel tired because I felt so lucky that I had finally got here, and I’d done it all by myself.

Then I went back home to New Zealand for Christmas and I was forced to take a break and spend time with my family. Without sounding too Eat Pray Love about it, or leaning too far into that frazzled city woman Hallmark trope, I spent a month sitting on the beach and cooking and eating and walking and swimming and at some point in all of that my well of words seemed to dry all the way up.

I couldn’t face opening up Substack and trying to work on this thing I had created for me (and for you hungry travellers) because I could barely get through the articles I was needing to write for my day job. I would sit and stare at the empty blinker. I stopped feeling like I wanted to leave the house. I cut back on work dinners and spent as much time out of the city as possible. When everyone else was having a Brat summer, I was inside my house in the enormous Lazy Oaf t-shirt I stole from my best friend Lucy, sitting in front of the TV or reading a book and trying to replumb my well of words.

Upon reflection, I had completely burnt myself out, and I feel like that turned into this kind of anxiety-induced professional paralysis that stopped me from realising that the reason I started writing in the first place is because it’s really fun and satisfying to communicate with people. I love how powerful and connecting words on a page can be.

I feel like my words are coming back now. But I also think I care less about this newsletter being perfect. I’m going to try really hard to get one out every fortnight as I initially planned, but I also hope you won’t be too upset if I skip a few weeks because I can’t find the words, or simply because I’m too busy with my day job or, on the flip side, too busy being on holiday. Locals Only will kick back off next Wednesday night with a really exciting set of recommendations from a good friend of mine who you might recognise from your television if you’re a reality TV fiend like I am. I’ll be sending it from Mallorca where I’ll hopefully meet an interesting local to share their tips for the Balearic Island with you at some point in the future.

Happy travelling, and thank you for reading my rambling.