Life Update and January & February Highlights

Claudio's now been in the UK with me for nearly three months, and we've been living at home with my parents since Christmas. We'd hoped that in the first few months of 2024, we'd be able to sort out our future plans, but of course, that's not proving to be easy. Nothing has come up in terms of work for Claudio in the UK - probably because he's currently on a tourist visa - and we're not sure we'll be able to get a partner visa for him, because the requirements are supposed to be changing soon. And in any case, I don't think the UK's a great place to live at the moment, and I don't know if I want us to be tied down here by a two-year visa, when we'll both hopefully have EU citizenship within the next year or two. Having said that though, Claudio has been attempting without success to get an appointment to submit his documents for Italian citizenship for over six months now, so who knows how long it will take him to get his passport. (Hopefully the process to get my Irish citizenship - which I plan to apply for this year - will be quicker and easier.)

So, all in all, things are pretty much still as uncertain as they were before. And although we long to settle down somewhere permanently, we've realised that that might not be easy to do until we've got more options open to us. But fortunately, there is an adventurous side of us that has things we want to do and places we want to go before we settle down permanently, and so we're now looking into some exciting plans that could be a great way to fill the time before we both get our EU citizenship.

Of course, we've been stressed and worried and full of uncertainty lately. But despite all this, I want Claudio to enjoy his time in the UK as much as possible, however long he's going to be here for. 

Once a week, I go into the office in Bristol, and Claudio comes with me by train. Usually he goes round visiting different places and museums in the city, and sometimes he goes off to other cities. Once he even went to Wales by himself, which was quite impressive considering he hadn't really travelled solo before.

And of course, at weekends, we try to go off to nice places whenever possible.

Here's a selection of highlights from the first two months of this year...

Our Engagement Celebration!

In January, we had a low-key celebration of our engagement at one of our favourite restaurants, the Thai Emerald in Cirencester. It was a really lovely evening! As always, the restaurant looked beautiful, the food was amazing, and it felt like an ideal place to celebrate our engagement, given where we're planning to have our honeymoon...

The Whitehall Garden Centre

The following day, we went for coffee and cake at the Lavender Lodge Tea Room in the Whitehall Garden Centre. This is one of the prettiest cafés I've ever been to, and to make things even better, we saw gorgeous reindeer, goats and donkeys while looking around the garden centre!

Afternoon Tea at the Old Bell Hotel

For my parents' birthdays in February, we went for an afternoon tea at the Old Bell Hotel in Malmesbury. It was a new cultural experience for Claudio, as he'd never had a traditional British afternoon tea before, and we all really enjoyed it.

Malmesbury Animal Sanctuary

One place I really wanted to take Claudio was Malmesbury Animal Sanctuary, where you can find rescued chickens, goats, alpacas, and emus. Claudio was particularly happy to see the emus, as he follows a Chilean "car influencer" who has one for a pet! They are very funny birds, and certainly entertained us with their movements and expressions!

Claudio's Christmas Present!

I got Claudio a Christmas present this year which I'll probably never be able to beat in future years! As he's a car fanatic, I decided to get him a supercar experience voucher, which involved driving a Ferrari and a Lamborghini, and having a high-speed passenger ride in a GTI. So on a rainy day in February, we went over to Castle Combe race track to use the voucher at a supercar event there. Claudio was in his element and had an amazing time - he especially loved driving the Lamborghini Huracán - and it was great to watch him having so much fun!

The Temple of Minerva and Botanical Gardens, Bath

This probably would have been our wedding venue, but then we found out that we can't legally get married in the UK because of our civil union. All the same, it was really nice to visit this little temple, which is located in a beautiful, secluded part of the city that I'd never visited before, despite the fact I've been coming to Bath for years.

(As it happens, we've discovered what looks like quite literally our dream venue in Chile, so hopefully we'll be able to get that booked for the Chilean summer!)

The Swan Hotel, Bibury

This is another wedding venue that we were considering, though after visiting, we felt that the village of Bibury itself was too full of tourists to have our wedding there. But the hotel itself is lovely, and as part of our venue visit, we got to visit its garden, which is so pretty.

AV8 and Cotswold Airport

This is a place we didn't get to take Claudio last time he was here, so it was nice to show it to him at last! It's really interesting to look at all of the different types of planes at the airport, and the décor in the café is so fun!

More adventures will be landing on this blog very soon, as it's not long before we'll be off to Italy! Even though our future plans are still really uncertain at the moment, we have to make the most of this time together, explore this part of the world, and have great experiences whenever possible.

See you back here soon!