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!

Life in Bristol: Update 1

Like I did when I was living in Chile, I'm going to write some posts about life in Bristol while I'm here. I've already seen quite a few interesting places around the city and beyond, and so it makes sense to put them on this blog.

So far I have mixed feelings about living here. I like my job - although it's not that similar to what I was doing at the marketing agency I worked at in Malta, it's within the general area of marketing. I work in the French market and get to use my French every day, which I'm really happy about. My colleagues are also really nice, and I enjoy my days in the office, which is located in quite a picturesque part of the city.

But I guess I just didn't really imagine myself ending up in Bristol - a city less than an hour away from where I grew up - after having lived in different places around the world. I had hopes of getting a job somewhere on the continent after my internship in Malta, but there weren't that many opportunities available that were suitable for me and my experience. Although I did get an interview for a job in Berlin, I realised during said interview that it wasn't really what I was looking for, and I didn't go further in the application process anyway.

When I was offered my current job, I was given the choice of working in London, Bristol or fully remotely, and although my heart wanted London, I went with my head and chose Bristol, based on the fact that my salary would have been the same in both cities. Besides, I'd always liked Bristol, and considered it to be my 3rd favourite city in England, after London and Bath. 

My Nana and my two great aunties all lived in the Bristol area, and I always enjoyed coming to visit them and found it entertaining to drive into and through the city. Going towards the city from the M32, you pass the Dower House (a big yellow castle), the interestingly-designed BT Tower, the Shah Jahal Jame Mosque, which looks like a Middle Eastern palace, and finally some colourful and very Nordic-looking apartment buildings. And then as you go through the city itself, you encounter some of the best street art on the planet, and more interesting and colourful buildings, which look like they could come from various places around the world. I always particularly liked going past the Bristol Royal Infirmary with its colourful rings! It was also nice to visit the area where my Nana lived, which has a little castle monument and a row of white houses that look like they're from a Greek island.

So I thought that I would like living in Bristol more than I have so far. While I like some parts of the city, I'm finding it a bit grim and depressing at times. It also feels like a bit of a setback to have gone from living in a really nice apartment with my partner on the other side of the world just over six months ago, and spending the summer working in the Mediterranean, to now be living in a flatshare in a city near where I grew up, at 28 years of age.

So I don't really see myself being here in the long-term. But it hasn't been all bad! I have visited some nice places in and around the city over the last couple of months, and I'm going to share them here today...

The Centre and Harbourside

This part of the city, with its tall townhouses and many boats, looks like it could be located somewhere like the Netherlands or the Nordic countries.

Bag of Nails

I've been to several cat cafés but this is the first ever cat pub I've been to! When my friend Sophie came to visit me in Bristol, we went for a drink here and loved seeing the adorable kitties!

The Clifton Suspension Bridge

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is definitely the most iconic sight to see in Bristol. I had been across it in the car, but had never had the chance to have a proper look at it before. So, I went on a walk there a couple of weeks after arriving in Bristol, and crossed the bridge on foot. The views of the Avon Gorge below are really incredible, and to make things even better, I met a lovely cat sitting next to the bridge!

There is a free museum on the other side of the bridge, in the village of Leigh Woods in Somerset, which was interesting to visit. It has lots of information about how the bridge was designed and built - it's amazing how complex it is.

Batida Restaurant

I went to this Latin American restaurant with my parents when they dropped me back in Bristol one day, and we all really liked it. It has some great Mexican and Argentinian food, super nice décor, and very catchy Latin music! Going there was a nice reminder of my times living in that part of the world. 😊

Castle Park

My partner Claudio encouraged me to go to this park, as it was a place he saw on the Chilean travel programme City Tour on Tour. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a castle anymore (the park is built on the ruins of Bristol Castle) but it's a very picturesque park. Here you can find St Peter's Church, which was bombed during World War II. There are also some nice views over the river, which also remind me a bit of continental Europe.

Cabot Tower and Brandon Hill Park

Another iconic place to visit in Bristol is Cabot Tower, which is located in Brandon Hill Park. This tower is 32 metres high and over a hundred years old. It's quite a claustrophobic climb to get up to the viewing points near the top of the tower (there's a second, even narrower staircase that goes right to the top, but I didn't feel brave enough for it!), but the views from the top across the rest of the city are quite spectacular.

Bath

One of the nice things about living in Bristol is that it's right next to Bath, so it's easy to pop over there for a day trip or a few hours. I met up with my parents there a couple of weeks ago for a bit of shopping and lunch, and afterwards I went on a big walk around the city. Bath's always been one of my favourite places to explore, and spending a day there really was a nice escape from the worries of everyday life.

Severn Beach

Another thing I like about living in Bristol is the suburban railway that goes between Severn Beach and Bristol Temple Meads. There's a station on the line that's about a five minute walk from where I'm living, so it's easy for me to get to Bristol Temple Meads and then on towards other places. But a couple of weeks ago, I decided to go to the other end of the line and visit Severn Beach. It is more of a stretch of mud and pebbles next to the Severn Estuary rather than an actual "beach", but it was good to be out somewhere more peaceful and rural. I enjoyed seeing the two Severn Bridges, looking across to Wales on the other side, and seeing all the cute dogs out for their Sunday afternoon walk!

Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Severn Beach was actually a very popular summer holiday destination for people in the local area. As it's not exactly an area where you can swim and sunbathe, they built a massive swimming pool, a fun fair, and many hotels and cafés. But once more and more people started to get their own cars, they began going on holiday further afield, and Severn Beach became much less popular. Now there isn't much there anymore in the way of entertainment.

However, there is a nice café called Shirley's Café, where I went after my long walk for a vegan chocolate cake and a mug of tea! It was a nice, retro kind of place (with a cute dog next door!) and I'll definitely try to go back at some point.

Some other nice buildings and places I've seen around Bristol!

Overall, it has been hard to adjust to life in Bristol, and I think the cold, dark weather we're having at the moment definitely isn't helping. But there are things to like about living here - I don't know how long I'll stay here, but I'm going to try to make the best of it. 😊