October 2025

It's officially soup season. I've brought out my trusty slow cooker for various soups and some slow-cooked dinners, and I'm here for the easy, hearty meals. The autumn months also mean sickness for someone with a chronic illness, and I've had my share this month.

We've been getting the vegetables for the soup and other meals from a farm shop down the road from where we live. It's also the best local place for PYO pumpkins at £3 per pumpkin, whatever size you pick. The vegetable boxes are £10 for a box of various seasonal vegetables, and they last us so long, I've even frozen some.

My soup was also shared with family and friends this month too. We took some over to my grandparents for lunch one day, and we ate it with fresh baguettes. Dad has built a picket fence out the front of the house, and we shared soup with him for lunch one day too! I also took some round to Bee and Johnny's house for lunch and helped Bee with concreting her kids’ climbing frame into the garden.

I have such admiration for Bee and all she does for her children. Also, her ability to have an idea and run with it is incredible. I think I always stop myself out of fear of the result not being perfect enough, which means I have ideas but rarely execute them, particularly when it comes to my home... I'd like to be more like Bee.

We had my parents round for a roast dinner at the start of this month. I could have chosen an easier meal to cook for the first time I've ever had my parents over for dinner, but it went well! Mum made a crumble as well, so we had that afterwards. We did one of those mystery games after, where clues come in an envelope and you have to work out the secret messages, etc. It was a nice way to spend the evening!

The second week of October, I was up in Manchester with work. We had various workshops over the span of three days and then one day of travel either side. It was lovely to meet some of the team I've never met in person, despite leaving soon. However, we went out for dinner one evening, and I was really poorly after. I'm blaming it on a dodgy prawn, but it literally left me in bed for half a day and a whole evening, so I missed out on the team social on the last evening, which was a shame.

The days getting darker have thrown my body clock off. I'm not really wanting to socialise after work, and I'm quite happy with it being just James and I. I've got quite a bit of holiday to take, so I've decided to book Fridays off as much as I can until I leave at the end of November. This has given me opportunities to catch up with friends, as I feel more productive in the daytime.

Imogen and I took a little walk from her house over to Mermaids Cafe, which was the perfect low-energy way to catch up for a couple of chronically ill girls. We bumped into Lisa, a girl we both went to school with, and it was nice to see her doing well too. Imogen and I just sat talking for a few hours. I've been pretty rubbish at staying in touch, so it was nice to catch up. Also, Mermaids is my favourite local cafe. James and I sometimes take a morning walk there on our rest days from the gym and have a walk and a coffee before 9 a.m.

I spent one of my Fridays with James' sister, Lucy. We went and got our nails done and then headed back to mine for some painting. I bought some paint-your-own plant pots from B&M and set the lounge up with my acrylic paints. We chatted away and painted for hours, which was lovely and chilled. This is exactly the kind of low-energy activity I adore in the colder months.

I finally caught up with Jordan and met the kittens that he and Megan recently got. It was lovely to catch up and hear about how business is doing for them. I feel immensely proud of what Jordan has built with his business, and it's so lovely to see how well he and Megan work together. She was working, so we didn't get to catch up, but I really am very proud of them both. I probably don't tell them enough. I'm really in awe of how creative they both are. Also, the kittens were very sweet and brought a wonderful energy to their home. They suit Megan and Jordan so much, and it's just a very wholesome and cosy vibe in their house.

Halloween is my favourite celebration of the year, so it was only right that I organised pumpkin picking. Bee and Johnny and George and Leah met James and me at a pumpkin field near Bee's house. I was quite surprised at the price of the pumpkins, it seems that pumpkin patches have taken a leaf out of America's book and added a size chart and price based on size. That, or I'm just used to going to the tiny pumpkin patch near me that doesn’t charge more than supermarket prices. But we still picked a variety of pumpkins, and the plan was to head back to Bee's house and paint them. We stopped by Lidl on the way back to pick up a buffet of picky food and cooked and ate it as soon as we got in. Then we spent a good few hours creating some pretty cool pumpkins. As I've mentioned earlier, painting and chatting is one of my favourite things to do to spend time with friends, so this was perfect.

Girls’ night was reduced to two of us again this month. This time Persia was away with family, so Jojo and I went to Santo Lounge near her for dinner and had a good long catch-up. We haven't seen each other for ages, so there was plenty to catch up on and, of course, college days to reminisce on too. It was lovely to see her. I drove home thinking to myself that I'm so grateful to have such long-lasting friendships.

My birthday is the beginning of November, which is why this blog is pretty late, the end of October is always hectic for me. James took me to London, and we saw Busted vs McFly at the O2. It was good, but I definitely am more into Busted than McFly, despite knowing the words to McFly songs. It's been 21 years since I last saw Busted and McFly in the same concert. Back in 2004, my family went to a festival and both Busted and McFly were playing. Way to make myself feel old before my 29th birthday, eh?

Of course, we celebrated Halloween. I was worried that we wouldn't get many children trick or treating as I've moved house, but there were plenty. Not as many as last year, but enough for James to experience trick-or-treaters for the first time. Inside the house, we hosted a murder mystery. I purchased this package that meant we could host multiple murder mysteries using the same script, but in hindsight, it's probably better to do one that's organised elsewhere. It was great to have everyone round and to see the fancy dress people wore, but the actual mystery itself was more of a guessing game, as the clues weren’t specific enough. Maybe next year I'll just do a games night.

The food we did was good though. Dad made olive bread, and we had pâté, crisps and dips, and picky food, as well as a platter of sweet treats too!

It was a lovely way to end the month. I can't believe it's November already!