The Month Of The UK: July 2025 Recap

I’ve continued my trend of visiting countries I haven’t experienced before during the summer months and this year that brought me to The UK. I haven’t been here in over a decade and a lot has changed. Let’s get into it.

I Went To The UK🇬🇧

Over a year ago a friend of mine mentioned she was going to visit the UK. I asked if she wanted company – and now here we are 🙂 . My Partner and I traveled longterm with someone other than my Mom for the first time. For almost 3 weeks we went to: London, Liverpool🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and Edinburgh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 together and had a lovely time.

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As always, I’m behind on posting my pictures to Insta, but they are coming, I promise 🙂 . Despite the heat wave that was happening when we arrived in London and the lack of AC in the country, we had a lovely time. I had been to London and Edinburgh before, but never Liverpool so it was especially cool exploring that new-to-me town.

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At the end of our time together, my Partner and I went to live in Bath for a month so we could relax and celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday anniversary. I’m currently writing this while sitting in our garden looking out over rolling hills, but I’ll talk about all that in next months’s recap 😉 .

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I Changed My Car’s Air Filter!

Before leaving on my UK adventure, I changed the air filter in my new-to-me car and even though that may seem small, I’ve never done any level of “car maintenance” before so I was super proud of myself!

• I Bought A Car! What I Learned As A First-Time Car Buyer

The process was so easy that it made me feel better about trying larger repairs that are fine for a novice. To find out how to do change an air filter in my car I watched the below very helpful video:

However, they left out a key piece of info for someone that knows nothing about cars – how to open the hood!:

So to combine these videos into all of the steps I did with my 2016 Honda CR-V EX:

1. Pull the hood lever that’s near where the driver’s left leg would go 
2. Above the left side of the Honda emblem on the hood push a clasp to the right and lift up the hood at the same time
3. Lift the prop rod and put it into the slot on the top of the hood to keep the hood open
4. Open the 3 clips on the air filter housing 
5. Lift the housing lid and remove the old filter
6. Clean debris out of the air filter housing if there is any
7. Put your new air filter in place and make sure it fits properly around the upper edge (Note: I had to wiggle the air filter around to get it seated properly)
8. Close the air filter housing lid and re-engage the clips (Note: You have to hold back all 3 clips while closing the housing so another pair of hands is helpful)
9. Hold up the hood and remove the prop rod and snap it back into place against the engine
10. Lower the hood halfway and then drop it so that it slams shut

Super easy! Midas wanted to charge me I think $79 for this simple replacement which took maybe 2 minutes. Even subtracting the $13 AirTechnik Air Filter I bought after checking that it fits my Honda’s specs, that’s a savings of $66 or 84%. And that is enough for a nice meal out in the UK 😉 .

I Played Video Games

I’m back to gaming! Whenever I’m vaguely interested in a new game that’s sold through Steam, I put it on my Wishlist and it alerts me when that game goes on sale.

Jurassic World Evolution 2

As a result, I was alerted that Jurassic World Evolution 2 went on sale for 95% off so I snapped it up for a whole $3. Nice 🙂 .

I assume it went on super sale because the 3rd iteration of the game is coming out in October. Works for me.

Originally I thought this 2nd iteration would just be the first game with some new dinos, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that while it did have the same modes as the 1st (Challenge and Sandbox), it also has two modes I haven’t seen before: Campaign and Chaos Theory.

Campaign is a quest based mode that helps collect and contain dinos after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. This was way more fun than watching that movie so great job game devs!

I love that each mini-campaign takes place in a different landscape. Gathering Triceratops in Arizona felt very different from trying to contain Carnotauruses on the snowy mountain peaks of Washington State.

The Chaos Theory mode is basically “What If?” scenarios that pop you into each movie’s scenarios starting with the original Jurassic Park. This was SUPER cool! I haven’t finished the first challenge, but trying to create the first park alongside John Hammond was wild.

I’m excited to keep playing this game and finish the Chaos Theory levels as well as the Campaigns. This was a great twist on the original Challenge and Sandbox, rollercoaster tycoon style gameplay.

Two Point Hospital

Another new game I played this month was Two Point Hospital. A reader recommended it to me and I looked into it after wondering how something seemingly depressing as a hospital simulator could be fun and I’m glad I did.

This game was 75% off and on sale for $8 and I accidentally played it for 4 hours my first time trying it. It was surprisingly fun to organize these intentionally silly medical facilities.

The Sims 4

And as usual, I played some Sims 4 this month. They had another timed event, this time named “Nature’s Calling” as a promotion for their new Enchanted by Nature expansion pack, which I’m not buying at full price. My SimTubers seem to be a bit annoyed at this pack and its addition of ailments and I’m not paying $40 to be frustrated with a game mechanic that I can’t turn off 🙂 .

The Nature’s Calling Event started out interesting and then ended so abruptly that I thought I had a glitch 🙂 , but after looking around the online Sims community forums, I discovered that nope: that was actually the ending – wow. It turned out to be very lackluster.

For completing the event I did get 2 new objects that seem cool and a little money, but that’s it. It was fun to do something different from my normal sandbox gameplay, but right when I thought this event was different from the others and was actually ramping up to be something interesting, it pulled the rug out from under me.

I won’t be fooled again 🙂 . As Mae says in Ted Lasso, “It’s the hope that kills ya.”

I Did My Nails

I’ve been enjoying wearing festive and summer-inspired nail stickers this month! I enjoyed putting on patriotic Blue Jean Baby for Juneteenth, the seemingly Mykonos inspired Flor Azul and the adorable Vogue Valencia, which are all from Dashing Diva.

I had a wonderful time with all of those nail stickers, but I also tried out Dashing Diva’s nail sticker remover, Magic Off+ Remover and unfortunately was not impressed.

It turned out to be worse than the Cuticle Oil that I’ve been using to remove these nails for almost 2 years. Their remover took longer than the cuticle oil and seemed to melt the nails in a way that cuticle oil does not.

I also didn’t notice my nails being additionally strong like they tout. However, the one thing it did do very well was removing all the sneaky pieces of adhesive from my nails.

It just took longer than I would like and melted the nail stickers off 🙂 . So I’ll be sticking to my cuticle oil.

I Knitted

I’ve continued my goal to buy a new, locally grown yarn in every country I visit to make an “Around The World” scarf which I have been using to learn and practice cabling before making a cable scarf as a gift. Here’s where I am currently:

The white yarn is Baby Alpaca from Tejer es Cool in Perú🇵🇪 and the multi-color purple is from Japan🇯🇵. In the UK I bought yarn made of Shetland Wool from Jamieson & Smith in Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.

This Shetland Wool is from Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland and it feels strangely soft for straight up wool in my opinion. This is where I am with that:

In case you’re curious, this pattern is an Irish Hiking Scarf so that’s fun to do while I’m in this part of the world. Also I have a profile on Ravelry here in case you want to be knitting friends 🙂 .

Also my goal to improve my knitting skill continues. One cable repetition used to take me 1 hour, but I’ve accidentally cut that in half after a lot of practice this month!

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly call with my Mom and Weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

Films

1. Saw III
2. Saw IV
3. Saw V
4. Saw VI
5. Proxima
6. Superman (2025)
7. Heads Of State

As you can see, I went on a little Saw vacation 🙂 . I’d never seen these films before because I thought they were just torture porn, but I was wrong.

One of my favorite FilmTubers Dead Meat also has a podcast that is doing “Hot Saw Summer” where they go over these films one by one and talk about what they love about them. It turns out that they’re actually more of a soap opera and a police procedural, the latter of which is one of my main interests. And I have been LOVING the interconnected storyline throughout these films and watching them alongside the podcast episode releases.

TV Shows

1. Always Sunny (S17)
2. Ted Lasso (S1)
3. Luther (S1)
4. Apprentice UK (S19)
5. Apprentice UK (S4)
6. Apprentice UK (S1)
7. Murderbot

My main social interactions this month involved hanging with the friend I was traveling the UK with and meeting readers for coffee, which I’ll get into below. Down time with my friend in our Airbnb often involved watching shows we enjoy, which this month included the above, most of which take place in and around London.

I Read 15 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

1. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
2. The Trade Deadline by A.L. Heard
3. Finlay by Lark Taylor

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here. This number of books is actually better than I was hoping for since I was fast traveling for most of the month. However, I am excited to slow down next month and be able to tuck into a good book for hours 🙂 .

Also a fun thing happened involving a book recommendation of mine this month! A friend of mine is a professor and I introduced them to the awesome book Laziness Does Not Exist by Dr. Devon Price and they’re assigning it to their class! I’m so honored 🙂 . Let’s fight that productivity propaganda!

I Wrote 5 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

1. The Month Of Machu Picchu: June 2025 Recap
2. The Best Budget Earbuds: Soundcore Space A40
3. Cheers To 7 Years Of A Purple Life!
4. I Became A NY Resident (Again): Real ID, Voting, Libraries, Healthcare and Taxes
5. Review: Tiritiri Matangi Island Nature Reserve from Auckland, New Zealand

I also met 3 readers for coffee while I was in London🇬🇧! And one of them I had met before in Seattle so it was cool to reconnect across the Atlantic.

I also got to hang out with the Mad FIentist while I was in Scotland. It was our second time chatting after I first met him at a meet up in Seattle in 2016 when I was still working. It was an interesting full circle moment when I’m 5 years into retirement and he’s almost 10. Awesome 🙂 .

I was also asked to be a guest on a podcast and will let y’all know when it’s live. And I was contacted for a media interview, but like usual got ghosted after I said that I was not willing to have them publish my legal name. Ah the life of an anon blogger 🙂 .

And this month in the realm of “weird opportunities I declined” we have:

• Asking me to promote an online shopping tool
• A request for me to review an advanced copy of a travel book
• Asking me to promote a car loan calculator – I’m anti-loan so that’s not gonna work. That’s why I bought my car in cash

Physical

Sleep

In the UK this time of year, the sun comes up at 5am (when we arrived in London it was 4:50am) and I’ve been intentionally not using my eyemask so the sun will slowly wake me up and I’ve been really enjoying that!

One of my wishes for retirement was that I would align my life more closely to the rhythm of the world and waking up at sunrise was a part of that. Also, it being completely bright at 5am makes the day feel a whole lot longer, which I like as well.

So despite getting up early most days, fast traveling and staying in many different places this month, my sleep was great! I went to sleep fairly fast, stayed asleep and awakened with the sun. It’s been lovely 🙂 .

Food

During this episode of fast travel, I ate out at restaurants while exploring new cities and bought pre-made food to eat at home. After walking all over London in the hot sun (during a heat wave) I did not feel like cooking.

So I didn’t cook for our entire almost 3 week trip traveling around the UK 🙂 . Now I have a lot of opinions about Meal Deals and ready meals from Sainsbury’s and M&S (Marks & Spencer). Spoiler: M&S is my forever love 😉 . This month I ate keto 42% of the time and took 18 days off keto.

I also tried some lovely new-to-me local beers and ended up getting some fun Untappd badges as a result:

Exercise

My exercise this month included doing my PT daily and walking all over the UK. Luckily my back is feeling 100%, which is SO much better than last month and I’m super glad. My back was at maybe 70% when I left home, but continuing my daily exercises and possibly walking has helped a lot. I’m going to keep up my PT so I don’t backslide again.

Mental

Learning

So it’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

The UK

• The United Kingdom (UK🇬🇧) has a population of 63 million people
• However, the UK (a country) is made up of 4 ‘countries’: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and if you’re wondering what the difference between the UK and Britain is like I was, this was helpful and hilarious:

• Within England🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, London has a population of about 9 million and Liverpool has a population of about half a million
• Within the UK, Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 has a population of 5.4 million and about half a million of those people live in Edinburgh
• Size wise, here’s how the UK compares to the US:

Birds

My birdwatching got a workout this month, which was my goal! I still get so excited seeing new birds in other countries that I can’t see at home. And the last time I was in the UK, I didn’t give a shit about birds so I didn’t pay attention to them at all 🙂 .

This time, I was paying full attention and saw some beautiful birds even in big cities. Here’s what I saw broken down by location including winged friends I saw this month before leaving the US:

NY State🇺🇸🗽

American Redstart, Veery, Red-Eyed Vireo, Yellow-Throated Vireo, Savannah Sparrow , Bobolink, Barn Swallow, American Crow, Northern House Wren

London, England🇬🇧

Rose-Ringed Parakeet, Eurasian Magpie, Common Wood-Pigeon, European Herring Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Lesser Black-Headed Gull, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Common Swift, White Wagtail, Eurasian Sparrowhawk 

Liverpool, England🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Eurasian Coot, European Starling, Western House-Martin, Dunnock, Common Swift, European Robin, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Blackbird, Great Cormorant, Common Tern, Gray Heron 

Edinburgh, Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Sedge Warbler, Eurasian Blackbird, Eurasian Jackdaw, Common Chiffchaff, Common Chaffinch

Fauna

I also saw a few fun animals and insects this month including:

NY State

Fireflies

Edinburgh, Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Welsh Mountain Sheep, Bluefaced Leicester Sheep, Scottish Blackface Sheep, Cheviot Sheep, Limousin Cow, Simmental Cow

Creativity

Channeling my creativity and making time to write was as challenging as I suspected it would be while traveling quickly. I intended to write a few posts in advance to help with that, but then I just…didn’t 🙂 . Oops!

Luckily I did feel the urge to write at times so I took full advantage of that and wrote like the wind to keep my (self-imposed 🙂 ) posting schedule and I’m glad I did! I also celebrated 7 years of posting at least every Tuesday on here, which was cool!

• Cheers To 7 Years Of A Purple Life!

I’m excited to have more downtime and more time to be creative. Maybe I’ll finally catch up on my Insta posts since they’re still 2 countries behind 😉 .

Emotional

My emotions were good this month, which is better than I was expecting given how much time I spent socializing and traveling quickly. I usually require a lot of relaxation and introvert time to function well, but I didn’t feel that this time while traveling fast with friends.

However, once it was me and my Partner staying in one place for a month again, it did feel good to have a more chill life once more. But it’s good to know that me needing a lot of introvert time isn’t a rule 100% of the time. Maybe I’m growing into a semi-extrovert (lol – just kidding).

Money

The UK is a high-cost of living country, but British Pounds are currently only worth 30% more than USD. Last time I visited London it was 100% more so this feels like a discount to me.

Regardless, I expected my budget to explode this month since I didn’t cook once while traveling around the UK and was spending money left and right. And it did 🙂 .

But I had a good time so it was worth it. I also suspect that my costs will even out while traveling slower for most of the rest of the year. We shall see 😉 .

On another note, July 1st marked another Dividend Day, which is always exciting:

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And here’s where my net worth ended up at the end of this month:

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Conclusion

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly (2020)

1. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out
2. Early Retirement Week 2: The Vacation
3. Early Retirement Week 3: The Whiplash
4. Early Retirement Week 4: The Heartbeat
5. Early Retirement Week 5: The Election
6. Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy
7. Early Retirement Week 7: The Train
8. Early Retirement Week 8: The Challenge
9. Early Retirement Week 9: The Question
10. Early Retirement Week 10: The Game
11. Early Retirement Week 11: The Recharge
12. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday

Monthly (2021)

1. The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)
2. The Month Of Birds: Early Retirement Month 5 (February 2021)
3. The Month of Change: Early Retirement Month 6 (March 2021)
4. The Month of Atlanta: Early Retirement Month 7 (April 2021)
5. The Month of Portland, Maine: Early Retirement Month 8 (May 2021)
6. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)
7. The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)
8. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)
9. The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)
10. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap
11. The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap
12. The Month Of Family: December 2021 Recap

Monthly (2022)

1. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
3. The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap
4. The Month Of México: April 2022 Recap
5. The Month of Mérida: May 2022 Recap
6. The Month of Seattle: June 2022 Recap
7. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap
8. The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap
9. The Month Of Maine: September 2022 Recap
10. The Month Of Acadia: October 2022 Recap
11. The Month Of Argentina: November 2022 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2022 Recap

Monthly (2023)

1. The Month Of Snow: January 2023
2. The Month Of New Hampshire: February 2023
3. The Month Of Sea: March 2023
4. The Month Of California: April 2023
5. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023
6. The Month Of Chicago: June 2023
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2023
8. The Month Of Troy, NY: August 2023
9. The Month Of Australia: September 2023
10. The Month Of New Zealand: October 2023
11. The Month Of Puerto Vallarta: November 2023
12. The Month Of Warmth: December 2023

Monthly (2024)

1. The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap
2. The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap
3. The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap
4. The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap
5. The Month Of Arizona: May 2024 Recap
6. The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap
8. The Month Of Canada: August 2024 Recap
9. The Month Of Iceland: September 2024 Recap
10. The Month Of Switzerland & Italy: October 2024 Recap
11. The Month Of Amsterdam: November 2024 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap

Monthly (2025)

1. The Month Of Yuki Matsuri: January 2025 Recap
2. The Month Of Auckland: February 2025 Recap
3. The Month Of Sakura: March 2025 Recap
4. The Month Of Seattle: April 2025 Recap
5. The Month Of Settling Down(ish): May 2025 Recap
6. The Month Of Machu Picchu: June 2025 Recap

What’s a fun fact you learned this month?