August is always a rather chill month in the UK, and I don’t just mean the British summer weather! (Which Joel and I love, by the way.) It’s a month where we have almost no meetings because people are travelling, so it gives me time to get caught up on other things when it comes to work. This year August felt especially laid back, and I kept thinking to myself “I need to take pictures for the blog!” but most days we really weren’t do anything significant!
We did get deeper into Magic this month, diving into the new Bloomburrow set that was released. Joel also got Ben into it who has now purchased a bunch of cards and the two of them even went to a store tournament together. Joel has been playing in more of those and winning some special cards!
On Sunday the 4th we were invited to a 60th anniversary lunch for one of the funeral homes in town. It was held at a fancy hotel nearby that looks like a castle to our American eyes, but apparently used to just be a “manor home.” The food was delicious and the company was lovely.
On Friday the 9th, we spent a frolic day with Steve, heading into Bristol to try out a buffet restaurant. Inside, it was set up like a bunch of different street food options, and there was everything from Indian to Mexican and everything in between! The food was pretty darn good for a buffet, and quite a bit of it was actually made fresh to order—like the tacos and stir-fry noodles.
We explored this new to us area of Bristol a bit before heading home to binge-watch the box set of Community, which we are slowly making our way through with Steve. (It’s at least my 6th time watching the whole series and it’s still as funny as ever!)
On Saturday the 10th, the TogetherWorks in Caldicot hosted the town’s first ever Pride event! I wore my heart dress and rainbow earrings and we went to check it out. There were artists and performers and food trucks and market stalls and it was lovely. We had some good food and I bought the cutest pair of handmade ghost earrings that I can’t wait to debut in October.
Speaking of Pride, a few days later I found this button for sale at the Caerwent post office and I couldn’t resist it. I’ve added it to my work bag that I carry almost everywhere.
We went to a whole lot of movies this month, our favourite of which was Deadpool and Wolverine, no surprise there. I also talked Joel into seeing It Ends With Us, which was only okay. The theater was offering new snacks, though, which were excellent! The nachos were upgraded to have Doritos style chips, and the popcorn is salted caramel. So yummy!
On Friday the 16th we randomly took a walk through town and discovered there was some kind of animal festival going on! There were alpacas, and sheep, and snakes, and this whole display of falconry - those are all real birds! It was definitely aimed towards children but we had fun wandering through.
Sunday the 18th was a bit of a sad day, as it marked the end of an era for Trellech Chapel. This was their final public worship service, as they have now merged the congregation with Monmouth and agreed to sell the building. The Methodist witness will continue in Trellech, however, as we will still do fortnightly assemblies throughout the school year! The final worship service was packed as people from around the circuit came to say farewell.
On the bank holiday Monday we went to see the new Crow movie which was absolute trash (so bad we walked out 45 minutes before the end), but on the bright side, I got the first pumpkin spice latte of the season! (Unfortunately, it's also probably my last of the season as Starbucks has gotten craaaaazy expensive. This cost me like $8 and that was with our movie theater discount!!)
On the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of the last week of August I took my “Quarter Days.” Every quarter we are supposed to take off 3 days in a row that don’t include a Sunday and don’t count as holiday. I have not been good about that in my 4 years here so far, but I have planned them all out for the year ahead! So this was a very chill week spent in my backyard pool…(where I spent any sunny day we had this month…)
We enjoyed our fire pit on Wednesday night, and Thursday we went up to Amy and Ben’s for the day and spent the whole day playing games! I got lots of baby snuggles in and we played the Lord of the Rings themed magic decks.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, we are beginning to study for the “Life in the UK” test, which is something we have to pass in order to qualify for our next round of visas in February 2025. We ordered the official books and are hoping to take the test sometime in October.
That about wraps up a month mostly spent reading in the pool, watching movies, and preparing for the new Methodist year ahead. I actually got all of my September meeting agendas written up before the last week of August - a task I usually procrastinate on until the last possible minute. I was pretty proud of myself!
So for now it’s goodbye to summer! (And you know this girl is ready for Autumn!)
XOXO, Bethany