After 7 years in London, living in zones 1,2 and 3, north and south of the river, and east and west of Charring Cross, I thought it was about time I summed up my experiences of living in the city. It's obscenely expensive, and an echo chamber for metropolitan elitism that bears little to no resemblance to the rest of the UK. It can be cold, grey and miserable - and it is nothing but a giant monopoly board for the privileged few who buy property to launder their money, and then let it sit empty while rent prices go through the roof for everyone else.

But it is also creative, energetic and lively and with something for everyone. It has architecture that will make your jaw drop, history that will immerse you, and open spaces that'll make you forget you're in one of the world's most powerful cities. You could live here all your life, and by the time you figure it out, the city has changed again. It's a city you can love and hate in equal measure - but there is nothing quite like it anywhere else.

When we first went into lockdown a year ago, I don't think any of us could have predicted the 12 months that have followed. People have lost jobs, and many others have lost lives. I count myself fortunate to be in neither of those categories, but I wanted to share a visual account of my lockdown, if for nothing else, to remind myself years from now how things can change in an instant.

​Before I begin, if you want to read my thoughts on the coronavirus from a year ago you can do so here, but just remember things have changed a lot since then. If you want to read my review of the year 2020, you can do that here.

If there's one thing London does better than anywhere else in the world, it's museums. There are a lot of them (around 200), and almost all of them are free of charge.

That shouldn't be a surprise, the British Empire spent two centuries sailing around the world collecting priceless treasures and artefacts. Yep, as beautiful as these museums are, they're also controversial, and I'll explore some of the controversy in this list.

A few years ago I wrote a list on my favourite museums in New York (which you can read here), so it's about time I did something similar for London - so here are my 10 favourite museums in London.

It's frequently called the capital city of Europe due to the presence of many EU institutions, Brussels is a city that punches above its weight. After all, it's a medium sized city in one of Europe's smaller nations.

I spent a few days in Brussels thanks to a work trip and I have mixed feelings. Rampant homelessness, a lack of greenery and some drab looking buildings are balanced by good food, and a central plaza that ranks among the best I have seen. You can read my details notes from Brussels here, but read on for the 5 things I loved Brussels.

There are a lot of things New York does well, and a few things that it doesn't do so well. One thing the city does particularly well is its museums. Across the 5 boroughs of New York, there are 80 museums, 32 of them in Manhattan, the area in which this article will concentrate on. The city has its own 'Museum Mile' an area that is covered with museums.

This number is considerably smaller than London (where there are over 200), and not only that, unlike the UK, museums in the United States charge admission prices, and some of the prices can be incredibly steep. However, despite these negatives, and the relative youth of the city, the museums in New York more than hold their own against European and British museums - and here are 10 of my favourites.