It's been a busy but really exciting time - we've been getting settled into our flat (and have loved getting the chance to decorate a bit and add our own touch!) and have spent plenty of time exploring London and areas near where we live. This move is something we were waiting to do for literally years, so it absolutely feels like the start of the rest of our lives, and we're really happy about it.
In this post, I'll be writing about what we've got up to in this new chapter, as well as all of our travel adventures over the last few months. So, let's start by going back to March...
Heathrow Airport
After arriving back in the UK following our honeymoon in Thailand (plus the chaos of missed flight connections and lost luggage!), we had to stay in London another couple of nights, as I had an early appointment in the city centre less than 48 hours later. To save money, we decided to stay at a hotel next to Heathrow: the Ibis Styles. This hotel is affordable for those of us on a budget but also has a really fun aviation theme!
We were a five-minute walk away from the Heathrow Airport Viewing Stand, so decided to check it out. It was difficult to get decent pictures, but we had fun seeing the planes taking off and landing.
Westbury Court Garden and the River Severn
At Easter time, we were still living at home and were busy getting ready to move, but we managed to squeeze in one last local trip over the long weekend. We decided to go to Westbury Court Garden, a place that I had visited during the pandemic but that Claudio hadn't been to before. This Dutch water garden is quite small but really unique and beautiful.
After exploring the garden, we drove to the River Severn and sat enjoying the view for a while.
Wembley Stadium and BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
Since moving to Reading, we've regularly used our weekends to get on one of the frequent Elizabeth Line services and go and visit different places around the capital. We both know central London pretty well at this point, but there are lots of interesting neighbourhoods and sights further out that we're enjoying getting to know.
Claudio is a football fan, so of course Wembley Stadium was one of the first places he wanted to visit! Passing through Wembley in the best seats on the bus (top deck at the front, obviously!), it was an interesting experience to see the neighbourhood. This area of London has a large South Asian population, and we saw lots of Indian shops and restaurants, and even a intricate temple, the Shri Sanatan Hindu Mandir.
Seeing the stadium was awesome - it's probably the most iconic stadium in the country, and maybe it's a bit strange that I hadn't been before. The surrounding area was buzzing with music and lots of people enjoying being out in the sunshine, and it was a great introduction to the London lifestyle.
After we'd had a good walk around the stadium (and had an ice cream!), I noticed that we were quite close to another place I was interested in visiting: BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. I can't remember whether I read about this Hindu temple in an article or saw it on Instagram, but it had been on my list of places to visit in London for a while.
We took a short bus ride to get there and were really amazed by the building: you would think you were actually in India, if it wasn't for the British weather! What's even better is that it's free for anyone to go inside and look around (though you are not allowed to take photos inside). A very nice couple talked to us outside and gave us some interesting information about the temple and Hinduism in general, which definitely added more context to our visit. Overall, it was a unique experience that I'd really recommend!
IFS Cloud Cable Car, the O2 Arena and the Olympic Park
The following weekend, we were back in the capital: this time in the east. We took the Elizabeth Line all the way to Customs House and got out at the Excel Centre.
This area of London is super nice and we enjoyed sitting on a bench by the river for a while with some snacks we picked up from Tesco. It was during the time when we had a sort of mini heatwave, and sitting there in the sunshine, next to the shimmering water, with skyscrapers in the distance and sporty people jogging and cycling past, I almost had the impression that we were in Sydney or Melbourne.
However, we weren't there to just sit by the river. We had come to this area for a reason, and that reason was the IFS Cloud Cable Car. So, with a bit of nerves, we paid £7 each, and got into a capsule that would carry us high above the River Thames, over to the O2 Arena on the other side.
Neither of us were strangers to cable cars - there's one in Santiago that we've taken a few times. However, this one was a lot further from the ground (or rather, water) than the one in Chile and it moved around quite a bit. We had fun, but at the same time, it was a relief to get back on solid ground on the other side!
As with Wembley, I'd never been to the O2 Arena before. I didn't know that, apart from the arena bit itself, the building is actually a big shopping mall that you're free to go into and wander around.
Then it was time for us to get back onto a more familiar mode of transport (the tube) to go and see yet more stadiums!
We went to Stratford to visit the Olympic Park, a place I'd first visited during my Gap Year back in 2015. I'd swum some lengths at the Aquatics Centre, which was really surreal, having seen it on TV during the London 2012 Games a few years earlier, and then had a walk around the park and the nearby Westfield Shopping Centre. I'd really loved the area at the time, and was interested to see how much it had changed in the 10 years since!
Fortunately, it was much the same and we both enjoyed seeing the park with the interesting formations of the Orbit Tower and the Aquatics Centre. There was actually a swimming competition going on inside the Aquatics Centre, but the security guard was nice enough to let us in for 5 minutes to see the place!
One thing that has changed since then is the Olympic Stadium itself. What was once the space where track and field medals were won in the 2012 Olympics, has been turned into a football stadium, which has been the home of West Ham United since 2016. I'll admit that back in 2015 I was disappointed about the impending fate of the stadium - I felt it should have remained an athletics venue in order to preserve the spirit of the Olympic Games. However, in 2025, Claudio was very happy to get to see the home of a famous Premier League club, so maybe it wasn't such a bad decision after all!
Visiting a Bristol Britannia plane at the Cotswold Airport
Though we've now got our flat looking nice and homely and well-decorated, the one thing we still haven't got round to getting is a TV (or a TV licence). So in the middle of May, we were back to Wiltshire and my parents' house for a weekend, mainly for the purpose of watching the Eurovision final!
But before parking ourselves in front of the telly, we had another exciting activity to participate in. A Bristol Britannia plane had arrived at Cotswold Airport and we got to go inside it! We even had the chance to sit in the cockpit, where a former navigator told us a lot about the history of the aircraft and how it's flown.
Next to the plane, there was a tent with military planes that are in the process of being repaired. Here we got to see some missiles and even an ejector seat!
Henley-on-Thames
The following weekend, we were in the Chilterns, visiting the picturesque town of Henley-on-Thames. It was such a nice place to walk around, and we rounded off our time there in the perfect way: with a cream tea by the river at Viv's café.
This trip was actually the topic of my first proper reel on my Instagram page - I'm in the process of experimenting with some new content ideas on social media as part of a marketing portfolio I'm creating. Although my personal favourite format of sharing content is this kind of old-school blogging that I do here on this website, I know it's not as popular as it was previously, and nor are the kind of Instagram posts I do (generally image carousels with a lot of hashtags). So I'm going to be playing around with short-form video over the coming weeks and months.
But of course, I've also captured some picture content from Henley-on-Thames to share right here!
Clapham Common, Battersea Park and Chelsea
Of course, we couldn't keep away from London for too long, and so on the Bank Holiday Monday at the end of May, we headed down to Clapham Common. While in Wembley, we'd had an experience of India, we were here in Clapham for an experience of Australia!
Clapham is the most popular neighbourhood for Aussies and Kiwis living in London, and is filled with Antipodean-inspired cafés. We went to one of them: Brickwood Coffee and Bread, which is just outside the tube station. Of course I had to have the avocado on toast and flat white! Even though the flat white was a lot stronger than what I'm used to, we really enjoyed the food and the Australian aesthetic of the place.
We then had a walk around Clapham Common in the sunshine.
It was cool to spot the pub the Windmill on the Common, as I remembered it being mentioned in one of the Cormoran Strike books, a series that I'm a big fan of and am currently rereading!
Next, we took the bus to Battersea Park, as I wanted Claudio to see the place that I'd enjoyed visiting back in January 2022. He really liked it too!
Then we crossed over the Albert Bridge...
...and arrived in Chelsea, an area neither of us had visited before. It was nice to see the elegant buildings, and Claudio loved all the fancy cars!
Working in London
However, we haven't just been having fun in London; I've also been working there - going in each week on the Elizabeth Line (super super early to avoid the rush hour prices haha). Although my current job isn't really aligned with what I want to be doing at this point in my career, all the same, working in London was a dream of mine for a long time, and I feel proud to have achieved it and happy whenever I step out into Central London early in the morning.
The office is located pretty near to the City of London itself, and I can see all the famous skyscrapers like the Shard, the Gherkin and the Walkie-Talkie from the window! The walk from the station also has plenty of great sights to see.
Life in Reading!
So, we're at the stage now where we've been living here for several weeks, we've settled into a routine, and it feels like home now. Obviously, moving out after over a year spent living in my parents' house was a big step, and it was stressful to take that plunge at last of deciding which area in or near London to live in and then choosing a flat, but pretty soon afterwards, we knew for sure it was the right decision. For example, before I moved to Bristol, I had a feeling that I wasn't doing the right thing, and that was confirmed to me pretty much as soon as I arrived. But since arriving here in Reading, we've both felt generally very happy.
We did consider living within London itself, but it was pretty clear that we wouldn't be able to find a flat like ours (very nice and modern, with a beautiful view and great location) in the capital for a similar price. The downside of living here is that it is a bit costly and takes some time to get into the centre of London, but with the Elizabeth Line, we do have that flexibility to just go to the train station whenever we want and get to London without planning in advance. The upside of being here, aside from cheaper rents, is that it's quicker and cheaper to visit home than it would be from London, and we're also very close to nice places like Oxford and the Chilterns.
Funnily enough, we do actually have the classic London black cabs here in Reading and we're now on the TfL network. However, our buses are local ones and we're part of the South East region rather than Greater London. So it does feel like we're getting a bit of both worlds, which is quite nice!
Reading doesn't have a reputation for being an attractive town, which I think is a little bit unfair; of course it's not as beautiful as Cheltenham, Bath or Oxford, and some parts are less well looked after than others, but it has a nice mix of modern, high-rise buildings and elegant, grand architecture. Here are a few highlights!
One of the nicest areas is Caversham, to the north of the River Thames. We once spent a really nice Friday evening in Caversham Court, an area that really makes you feel like you're in the most idyllic English summer setting possible.
That's all for today - it's been a long one! However, there's more to come soon; we recently sneaked in an early summer minibreak featuring beaches, a castle, and a very iconic sight. A post all about it will be on its way shortly!
