Life Update and Autumn Travelling

Greetings travelling readers!

This post will most likely be my last of 2024, as in a couple of weeks' time, we'll be off to Chile to get married and then spend Christmas in the sun. So now that we're entering December, it seems like a good time to round up all the little adventures we've been on over the autumn months. 

Generally, autumn is not my favourite time of year. Even though my birthday is in October, I much prefer warm, sunny weather and long summer days when it doesn't get dark until late at night. I know a lot of people love the cosiness of autumn, but I hate how it gradually gets colder and darker with each passing day. It doesn't feel like that long ago that I was spending my afternoons after work sitting in the sun on the patio with a book and next door's adorable cat keeping me company, and now it's dark by 4 pm and I have to put on gloves and a hat to go outside some days.

But given that Claudio and I are going to be in the sun for most of December, as well as parts of February/March, it makes sense to try to enjoy the benefits of the colder weather while we're here. We've had some nice times out and about over the last couple of months, and I'll be writing about them today!

The Village Hotel, Swindon

I was given a voucher from work, and decided to use it on day passes to the Health & Wellness Club at our local Village Hotel in Swindon. These hotels all have a gym, a swimming pool, a hot tub, a sauna and a steam room, as well as a Starbucks and a pub-style restaurant. We'd previously stayed at the one in Swansea, but we actually found the Swindon one quieter and a bit nicer.

We started off our day there with a workout in the gym, which is huge and has all the equipment you could ask for. Afterwards, we had a relaxing swim, and rewarded ourselves with time in the hot tub and steam room, before finishing off our time there with a pumpkin spice latte! Even though we only spent a matter of hours there, the experience felt like having a mini holiday, and we'll definitely go back if I get another voucher.

Halloween and Bonfire Night

Something nice we did this autumn was getting into the spirit of things over Halloween and Bonfire Night. As a kid, I used to get really excited about both of these events, but in recent years, I hadn't really celebrated either of them beyond watching the occasional Halloween-themed movie.

But this was Claudio's first non-pandemic Halloween in the UK, and he wanted to see how different it was here compared to the Chilean Halloween, where it's already quite hot and sunny, and doesn't feel quite as spooky as it does in dark and chilly England! So we decided to go on a walk after supper on Halloween night in order to see all the decorations people have put up around the village. I usually don't like going out in the cold and dark, but it was actually a really fun experience, and I felt a little bit of that excitement I used to get when going trick-or-treating. We even stopped to watch a little firework show happening at one house!

Speaking of firework shows, we got to see a much bigger one a few days later, when the village put on its annual Bonfire Night show. Again, this is something that I hadn't been to in person for years - once I got to secondary school age, we started watching it from the window instead. But it's definitely a more fun experience to actually go out and watch it with everyone else. The show was much more impressive than we expected - it lasted about 15 minutes and had some huge, colourful fireworks. Overall, it was a nice and different way to spend a Sunday evening!

Abingdon

The most exciting thing that's happened to us this autumn was becoming an aunt and an uncle! My sister and her husband had a baby boy at the end of September, and we went to visit them in October. After having a cuddle with our nephew at their house, we went out to the town of Abingdon for lunch at the Abingdon Riverside Café and a walk along the River Thames.

I'd heard of the town of Abingdon before but didn't realise it was so picturesque. With the river and its quaint, old-fashioned buildings, it made us think of Bruges. It was great to stroll along the river after a lunch of avocado on toast and a flat white - my favourite combi!

Cotswold Lakes in Autumn

The colours of autumn are always beautiful to see, especially when they're surrounding a tranquil lake. I don't think they were so vibrant this year as I've seen them in other years, but all the same, it was nice to go and check them out at the lake next to the De Vere Hotel and the Gateway Café in the Cotswold Water Park. Afterwards, we went to a little wooden cabin selling donuts and crêpes and had warm donuts with Nutella - would highly recommend!

Marlborough With Claudio

Claudio hadn't yet visited the scenic town of Marlborough, so it was good to get the opportunity to go there for an explore while my parents were visiting a friend. Of course, I had to take Claudio to the famous Polly's Tearooms, which he enjoyed very much!

We also visited some parts of the town I hadn't had time to see when I last went to Marlborough, including the posh Marlborough College, from where you can see the ancient Marlborough Mount (which looks a bit like Silbury Hill near Avebury) and the Marlborough White Horse.

We also went for a walk around the riverside area at the other end of the town, which is another place with a bit of a Bruges vibe!

Our weekend in Surrey and London

We had a somewhat spontaneous weekend in the London area in November, as I was going to meet up with my friends from Malta on the Sunday, and then we arranged a viewing of a flat in Redhill in Surrey on the Saturday.

The flat was an option that was genuinely affordable for us to buy, and I'd really loved it from looking at the pictures on Zoopla, so it was very disappointing that on the Friday afternoon prior to the booking, the estate agent called us to cancel, as someone else had already had an offer accepted. By this point, it was too late to change our train or cancel our hotel reservation, so we went anyway and had a look at the apartment building from the outside. It actually looked much shabbier in person than in pictures, and we weren't massively keen on the area, so it was kind of a relief that we hadn't lost out on something really special! 

The experience did prove to us though that if we're going to find a property to buy in the London area, we're going to have to start off by renting there, so that we can easily explore different areas of the city and view flats at short notice. We've decided we're going to take the plunge and move after we get back from honeymoon in March next year. It is daunting because of the costs involved, but also very exciting, because we love London and really want to live and work there!

After we'd seen the flat, explored the area, eaten and checked into our hotel in Redhill, we took the bus over to Reigate to have a walk around. Reigate is not somewhere we're considering moving to, as it's very expensive, but it was a very nice place to visit. It was particularly interesting to see the Priory and the Castle Grounds.

The following morning we got the train into London, arriving at London Bridge Station, right underneath the Shard!

We then travelled over to Canary Wharf, as neither of us had been before, and we'd seen a reel on Instagram saying that it was like going to New York without having to pay for an expensive flight! That's actually not wrong - even though we haven't been to the Big Apple yet (hopefully we'll go in the not-too-distant future), we did kind of feel like we were there! The skyscrapers are amazing and I loved the sculptures made from leaves.

We stopped off at Blank Street Coffee, a coffee chain that only has locations in the United States, London and Manchester. I've seen it mentioned a lot on LinkedIn for its marketing strategies, so wanted to visit, being a marketing girly myself! I had a pistachio latte, Claudio had a chocolate orange mocha, and we both had a pistachio pain au chocolat. While my latte was too sweet for my taste, Claudio's mocha was pretty good, and the pastries were very tasty, although they were also very sweet - I think they gave me a sugar rush and then a crash later! 

While we were in the area, we also had a look round the London Museum Docklands, which is actually free to enter. Here you can learn all about the Docklands area, its history as a port, and its role in the slave trade. 

Interestingly, there was a room with signs showing all the different places where the ships from the Docklands went to trade, and Claudio was surprised to see it included two cities in Chile - Valparaíso and San Antonio!

Afterwards, we travelled over to the west of the city to enjoy the Christmas decorations in Covent Garden.

Then it was time for me to meet up with the girls from Malta over in Waterloo, while Claudio went to look at the Christmas lights in Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street.

There were 7 of us in total out of the 12 of us that went out to Malta together, so not a bad turnout. We went round the South Bank Christmas market and then had a Sunday roast in a pub. It was great to catch up with everyone and hear what they've been up to. Hopefully, we'll have another meet-up in the new year!

That's all from me for today - and for this year! Of course, there are some big adventures yet to come in 2024, and I'm very excited to write about them in January.

Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2025 to everyone reading this! See you soon 😊