September 2025

I have quite a plot twist this month. This year is crazy!

I've been offered a new job!

It has been a tough decision though, as I have loved working with the company I am in now. It's hard to not feel guilty for leaving such a lovely team. However, if I've learned anything in business, it's that you need to do what's best for your personal career. I am working a 3-month notice period, so will be starting my new role in December. It's an exciting step up in my career and I'm really looking forward to it. It's at the same company Jojo works at. It's a step where I'll be able to learn new skills and gain more professional insights, which I'm really excited for. Also, the office is only a 30-minute drive from home. So, I guess I'll be able to have a bit more of a sociable work environment for the first time in 5 years.

I ended last month with the games night at my grandparents before Lewis left for Australia. It was so lovely for us to have an evening as a family. However, Nan's oven packed in after we cooked two of the six pizzas. So we spent a good part of the evening finding alternative ways to cook a pizza. I cut one up and put it in the air fryer, and my brother decided to grill one and then finish it off in a frying pan to make the bottom crispier. It was comical and I don't think we'll forget it! After playing a few of the old traditional games from our childhood, we made knickerbocker glories to end the evening. It was a great send-off for my brother.

Wightlink Ferries gifted me a ferry crossing to the island this month. James, his sister Lucy, and I went over for the day and we crammed quite a bit into the day. We did a mini road trip from Fishbourne to Shanklin to Godshill and then The Needles. There are so many quaint and whimsical places on the island; I take it for granted that we live so close by. It was quite a long day in the end! I created a couple of UGC videos for Wightlink for the gifted trip. Embarrassingly, I spelled Isle of Wight wrong on my Instagram post, which gained traction before I noticed, so I've updated the caption and left it. It's okay, because according to a quick Google search, the common misspelling "Isle of White" was famously used in a 2017 incident where a supermarket printed it on bags for life, leading to public criticism and a recall of the bags. It could always be worse.

I made my first batch of cinnamon buns of 2025 this month and then had to share them out between my family. They're quite a bit of work to make, and they only really stay fresh for a few days. Putting them in the fridge tends to make them a bit hard and not so fluffy. I was still sort of impressed with myself though, as they tasted really good!

James went away for a few days with work. They had a conference thing in San Francisco. It ran over a weekend and was actually the first time we've spent a whole weekend away from each other since we got together. It's interesting because I didn't feel unsettled when he was away. I missed him, but I didn't feel like I couldn't function. I think the codependent side of me has really been lessened in this relationship. I feel secure and really free.

When he got back, we had a date night in Winchester. Starting out at a hidden cocktail bar called Incognito and then dinner at The Ivy. The cocktails seemed to not agree with me much, and I had horrendous sternum and stomach pain not long afterwards. There must be an ingredient that set off a reaction. Since drinking alcohol again after a two-and-a-half-year break, it's not been so bad for my digestion, but this experience has somewhat put me off drinking alcohol now.

It was George's birthday celebrations this month. We went up to London for the day and did a VR experience, which was really good fun, and then all chilled for the evening and played games in George's house. Very wholesome vibes!

I tried to slow down a bit this month by going for a couple of walks and collecting acorns, which James and I turned into little acorn people. It was something mindful and crafty to do with our time, a small reminder that slowing down doesn’t always mean doing nothing.. There was something really wholesome about sitting together, making tiny characters out of what we’d picked up on our walk, and letting ourselves enjoy the quiet creativity of it.

James' powerlifting competition was this month. It was held at Super Training Gym in Cheltenham. We travelled up on Saturday and stopped by Bath on our way up to Cheltenham. It wasn't too busy in Bath, and we walked all over the city, mainly popping into shops. Then we drove to our hotel just outside Cheltenham. It was a beautiful spa hotel called The Greenway Hotel. The competition was on the Sunday afternoon with a weigh-in at 12:30 p.m., so we had a little lie-in and then some breakfast before heading over to the gym. We were shortly joined by James' sister Lucy and her boyfriend, and then Steph and Rhydian, James' friends, as well as one of the ladies we met at the gym. He has quite the little fan club. The competition was live-streamed and my parents, my grandparents, and my cousin Alex all watched. Nobody from my family understood the scoring and I'll be honest, neither did I, but everyone was very impressed. It was a good vibe all round throughout the competition. James ended up coming 5th overall and 1st in the Open, which is incredible for his first competition, although he's very humble about it.

We both took the Monday off and took advantage of the spa facilities in the hotel before returning home and back to reality.

Girls' night was supposed to be the Tuesday after, but Jojo didn't feel too well, so Persia came over to mine for the evening. We had "girl dinner" consisting of breadsticks, finger food, and dips, and we talked all evening about all sorts; relationships, college, work, etc. It was really lovely, and I'm so glad we still saw each other. We need to get another date in the diary though, before we all fall out of this amazing monthly check-in routine we currently have.

I also had my first singing lesson in over 11 years this month. Technique came back to me naturally, but I'm glad that I'm only going to be going once a month. I miss having a singing teacher who plays piano, but for some reason, I've struggled to find someone who isn't a virtual-based teacher. I enjoyed the lesson though, and my main reason for going is to build back my confidence so that I can audition for a local amateur theatre production company. I'd like to be back doing something for myself, and since being with James, I've been in a much better place financially, which in turn means I have felt more relaxed about spending money on myself and the things I want to, rather than worrying about bills and food and the "boring essentials." Money doesn't buy everything, but financial security is incredibly valuable.

The last weekend of September, we took a day to celebrate my dad's birthday. We went to the New Forest to mushroom forage and we collected them to identify later. We aren't professional enough to be able to identify them there and then, but it was a fun activity to do. We spent an hour and a half doing that before a lovely lunch at the Limewood Hotel in Lyndhurst.

After lunch, we went back to my parents' house and watched two films: Bohemian Rhapsody and Better Man. Very similar vibes, as they both follow the lives of musicians (Freddie Mercury and Robbie Williams). It gave me a sense of feeling like even those people who we think have it all usually don't. I became instantly grateful for everything I have.

The next day, I was invited to the theatre by my great aunty and Nan to watch Riverdance. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was a lot better. Our seats were really good, and the show itself was impressive. My Nan made a comment about how exhausted she felt for the dancers. There's a hell of a lot of cardio involved in Irish dancing, and I had definitely not realised. The singer and musicians were brilliant too, and it was just so lovely to be in the theatre again.

My health has been exactly how I expected it to be with the changing seasons. The colder weather always makes my joints hurt more, and it's hard to regulate my temperature. I've had a horrible bout of eczema on my legs that keeps me up at night, but I think there are multiple factors at play, the biggest one being stress. Even though my life looks pretty perfect right now, I can’t shake a sense of anxiety. I wake up in the morning and my brain is already in overdrive, listing out all the things I need to do in and outside of work. It never seems to stop. I'm conscious that stress is contagious. So, I'll do what I can in october to destress and calm my busy mind.

Today is the 30th. I don't tend to write on the last day of the month, but I haven't really given this month's blog the time that I usually give. It's been such a quick month though! As the days are getting darker, my self-care tools are going to need to resurface. I'm currently trying to figure out what that will look like for me. October is possibly my favourite month of the year though, so I only have good vibes going into it!