The Month Of Bath: August 2025 Recap

Hello from the rolling hills of the English countryside 🙂 . I’m writing this while sitting in my garden listening to new-to-me birdsongs and feeling the sun on my face. Let’s see what I got up to in August!

I Lived in Bath🇬🇧

As I mentioned in my last monthly recap, I spent this month in Bath! For those that don’t know, it’s a city that’s a 1.5 hour train ride west of London. It’s an idyllic place known for its architecture, picturesque landscape and at times being the home of famous writers like Jane Austen and Mary Shelley who wrote works such as Pride & Prejudice and Frankenstein respectively.

When we arrived, I was surprised and delighted to learn that this year is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and that the adaptations of several of her novels (some of which take place in Bath) had scenes filmed here. Or if you prefer a more modern example, a lot of the show Bridgerton was filmed in Bath.

But before I knew about all of that famous stuff, I had a related thought when we rolled up to our little cottage in the Cotswolds – I felt like I was in one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Holiday (no judgement!). The city gives exactly the beautiful, relaxing, slow travel vibes I was looking for after running all over the UK last month with my college friend and Partner before she had to head back to her job in the US.

I really enjoyed living in Bath for a month and becoming a local with my favorite chippy, grocery store, and coffee shop. I also became a bit of a regular at one of the awesome yarn shops in town, which my wallet wasn’t thanking me for, but I don’t regret it 😉 .

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I Knitted

Speaking of yarn shops, I finished my first cable knit scarf! This is the final product without blocking:

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After that I decided to tackle my first knitted sweater! I started by trying to figure out what the fuck the sweater instructions mean 🙂 . I was really glad I had YouTube to look up different stitches and that I have a knitting community to help me out because it was A LOT.

I’m working on a blog post detailing how I learned to knit and my notes for the sweater portion are going to need to be its own post because it’s way too long already 🙂 . So I had several breakdowns trying to figure out how to knit this, but I finally figured out how to construct a top-down sweater based on instructions that I wouldn’t recommend for first time sweater knitters unfortunately.

But it was all worth it! Here’s where I am with my first sweater after a month:

I made a few big mistakes (let me know if you can spot them 😉 ), but it’s overall been a fun challenge and I’m enjoying the process and how much I’ve learned.  I also instituted a new rule that’s been nice: if I’m rewatching something I’ve seen before alone, such as YouTube, a TV show or a movie, I now have to knit during it. I still find the act of re-watching a comfort show relaxing, but by also knitting during it, I see constant progress which I also like.

The only challenge I had with knitting this month besides figuring out the first parts of a top-down sweater, was mentally getting my head around buying $150 of yarn for one sweater. I’ve never spent that much on a sweater in my life and that obviously doesn’t include my labor of actually making it. This is gonna be a very expensive sweater. 

So I’ve started to look at that $150 as a “hobby expense” that brings me joy over several months, which it is, instead of the cost of a piece of clothing that I might immediately spill chill on 🙂 . So it’s a hobby expense for the probably hundreds of hours I’ll enjoy knitting it. Wearing it will just be a bonus if I get there 😉 .

Also I think I’m becoming a hardcore knitter because I’m getting a callous on my right pinkie finger from all of this knitting. Hardcore 🙂 . And just a heads up that I have a profile on Ravelry here in case you want to be knitting friends.

I Learned About Haircare

So I don’t know if it’s because I now have a homebase to put shit in, or that companies like my beloved Ethique are coming up with more travel and environmentally friendly beauty solutions, or just that I’m getting older (hello 35…) and my hair is changing as I get more grays, but this month I dove into the world of haircare.

• Review: Ethique Shampoo, Conditioner and Lotion Bars
• My Favorite Nomad Hack Of 2023: A Conditioner Bar

I started reading up about split ends and how they can negatively affect your whole head of hair. I think I had heard this before, but I seemed to never get split ends in the past and my hair remained healthy and happy without me having to do anything (ah the ease of youth 😉 ). But that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

So I learned how to cut my own split ends by searching for someone who has my same type of hair (3C I believe). I took my Partner’s hair scissors (I learned how to cut his hair like a fancy barber during the pandemic 😉 ) and followed the instructions and I was shocked at how my hair instantly changed.

It was curlier, softer and looked more full just from getting rid of a few centimeters of split ends. So I’ll be doing this about every 6 weeks like the video above suggests.

Next, I looked into how to care for my increasing number of gray hairs, which are a different texture than the rest of my hair. Everything I read said Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

So that’s my next step. I’ve started researching hair masks, leave-in conditioners and other things that can help hydrate my hair more than I usually do. I’ll let you know what I end up trying and if I like it in case it can help anyone else who’s also on a hydration quest.

I Did My Nails

I mentioned in a previous monthly recap that I was looking into tools to make taking off my Gloss Nail Stickers even easier. My last attempt failed, but this week I struck gold!

• Review: Dashing Diva Gloss Nail Stickers – A Nomad Beauty Revelation

When I first started using these nail stickers, a YouTube video I watched recommended using Cuticle Oil to take them off, which continues to be the easiest and best solution I’ve used for getting these stickers off easily and not drying out my nails like nail polish remover would.

And based on advice from that same YouTuber, I have been using Dental Picks to get the stickers off while waiting for the cuticle oil to dissolve the adhesive.

However, I recently saw that the same YouTuber was talking about Dashing Diva’s Glaze product (which requires a UV light and is more hardcore than their Gloss nail stickers that I use) and saying that using a Wooden Cuticle Stick helps a lot to remove them.

So I got curious and bought some cuticle sticks from Boots in Bath for like a pound and used those instead of the dental picks to remove my latest nail stickers. And it was EVEN EASIER than the dental picks! New process acquired. Not only was it faster than the picks, but it also took off all the adhesive that at times is left behind by the pick. JACKPOT!

After that I put on some new nails to match our next destination – Iceland🇮🇸! These sparkly purple beauties are called “Fig Pop“:

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.

1. Pride & Prejudice (2005)
2. Next Goal Wins
3. Longlegs
4. Sinners
5. Ready Or Not
6. The End We Start From
7. Always Sunny (S17)
8. Saw 3D
9. Jigsaw
10. Spiral: From The Book Of Saw
11. Saw X

As you can see, I’m back on my Saw bullshit. And I’m having a great time 🙂 . Maybe I should watch movies along with a podcast more often.

In addition to all that, outside of a computer, I hung out with a high school friend I haven’t seen in over a decade that lives in London, which was really cool. I also got to see two people in Edinburgh, Scotland before we left who I became friends with while studying abroad in Italy 15 years ago.

Back then, I helped a friend of theirs in a grocery store, later grabbed coffee with her and she introduced me to her group of friends, which included these two people and the rest is history 🙂 . Lastly, I had a few knitting video calls when I was having my sweater breakdowns detailed above 🙂 . It was a fun filled month IRL and virtually.

I Read 20 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

1. Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists – The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All by Laura Bates
2. Himbo by Emmy Sanders
3. Contingently Yours by Dianna Roman

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here. I really enjoyed reading in my lovely little cottage this month. If it was a (surprisingly rare) rainy day, I found it an ideal time to read and be cozy with a hot cup of tea in the English countryside 🙂 .

I Wrote 4 Posts

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

1. The Month Of The UK: July 2025 Recap
2. Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Auckland, New Zealand to Singapore for $18
3. Review: Singapore Air Economy Class – Singapore to Tokyo, Japan for $18
4. Slow Travel Review: Amsterdam, The Netherlands – The Land Of Canals and Bikes

I published my first Slow Travel Review in over a year! I didn’t mean to take such a break from writing those so I have a new goal of publishing one every month until I’m caught up. Those posts take a long time to write so I’m trying to set aside time to dive into them with mixed success 🙂 .

Adjustments might be needed, but I met my goal this month! These kinds of posts always feel a little daunting because of their length and the research that goes into making sure that my experiences reflect the norms of a city and country. However, when I thought about it some more, these posts are about the same length as every post I’ve written around here lately, aka quite long 🙂 . So it’s a little less daunting if I think about it like that.

In addition to all that writing, I met up with 4 readers while in Bath🇬🇧, which might be a record. I didn’t expect Bath to be bumping with readers of this blog, but it was and it was amazing to meet all of you!

During this month, a different reader of this blog mentioned that we were actually in 2 of the same cities at the same time this month, but they didn’t know it, so they didn’t reach out so we could meet up.

So to avoid those “ships passing in the night” situations, here’s a list of where I’ll be for the foreseeable future. If you’ll be in the same area and want to grab a coffee, feel free to reach out to me. And if you have an idea of where I should keep this info to be more easily found in the future, feel free to let me know.

2025

• August: Iceland🇮🇸
• September: Denver, CO
• October-December: Upstate NY

2026

• January-March: México🇲🇽
• April: Arizona
• May: Ecuador🇪🇨
• June: Maine

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

• Someone offered to make me a dentist app (…why lol?)
• A company wanted me to promote their real estate website
• Someone wanted me to recommend their investment research platform
• A person asked if they could use my photography for their AI. I appreciate them asking instead of just taking like many people do, but I’m definitely not comfortable with that – even with credit so I declined
• I mentioned in a previous monthly recap that a Sacramento ghost tour wanted me to promote their tour and they’re back in my inbox, and this time they wanted me to know that they actually have ghost tours worldwide. I’m honored they thought of me for some reason, but have no idea why they would think paying to try to see something that doesn’t exist is up my alley 🙂
• Temu offered me $700 to promote their fast fashion garbage – absolutely not.

Physical

Sleep

I slept well this month! I really enjoyed my slower pace of life and as a result I often awakened with the sun, which I loved.

Food

This month I ate keto 87% of the time and took 4 days off keto. But despite that small number of days off I was able to eat and drink a lot of delicious things! I even got some new awards on Untappd because of my beer tasting prowess 😉 :

Exercise

My exercise continues to revolve around daily PT. I’ve also started going on long walks while my Partner is out running 3x a week. I’m sad I’m not running with him, but really loving not being in pain, so I want to continue getting stronger before I even consider running so I don’t backslide again. I miss it though, which I find really funny.

• From Hate To Love: How I Became A Runner

In addition to the back and hip focused videos I’ve mentioned in previous monthly recaps, I enjoyed this IT band workout this month:

I also liked this hip strengthening one, which is a mix of exercises that I’m already doing:

Mental

Learning

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

Bath, UK

• Bath is a city in England with a population of about 112,000 people that is named after its Roman-built baths. Those baths were built by the Romans in 60 AD
• The giant Bath Abbey was originally built in 1611. Aka this city is old and beautiful 🙂
• From our Airbnb we could see “Solsbury Hill”, the titular hill in Peter Gabriel’s song of the same name. I love that song and this was super cool to see outside our window

Salisbury, UK

We went on a daytrip to Salisbury to meet my high school friend and while there were shocked to discover that this little town is filled with interesting historic items and records. For example:

• Salisbury Cathedral is the tallest one in the UK and was built from 1220 to 1330
• This cathedral holds the oldest working mechanical clock, which you can see and stand an inch from. It was really cool!
• This cathedral also has the best preserved of the 4 original Magna Carta, which was created 810 years ago. WHAT?! We got to see that as well and the combination of these tree things blew my mind and made me want to visit Salisbury again!

Astronomy

This month the Perseids Meteor Shower happened. In Bath I only had a small window between sunset and moonrise where I could see it. So I sat outside with my Partner and watched the stars during the time that Time and Date said I would have the best chance to see these shooting stars. Sadly we didn’t see any, but we had a lovely time hanging out in the starlight.

Birds

I felt like a Disney princess this month. I would go outside in my garden and see beautiful birds while looking out at the rolling hills of Bath. It was absolutely lovely. Here are the birds I saw this month:

Eurasian Blue Tit, Eurasian Blackbird, Eurasian Magpie, Common Wood-Pigeon, European Robin, Eurasian Wren, Great Tit, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Jay, Common Buzzard, Long-Tailed Tit

European Herring Gull, Stock Dove, Eurasian Blackcap, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Eurasian Green Woodpecker, Common Chiffchaff (great name – it’s basically riffraff 🙂 ), Dunnock, Willow Warbler, Eurasian Jackdaw, Rook, Winchat, Goldcrest, European Goldfinch, Eurasian Nuthatch

Flora

While walking around Bath I was surprised that every few steps seemed like there was a fruit tree or a bush full of fruit just hanging out.

My Partner went to eat a berry that he said was a blackberry, but I asked him to hold off until I could confirm what the berry was because I was getting Hunger Games flashbacks 🙂 . Here are the cool plants I saw this month:

Butterfly Bush, Chestnut Tree, Surfinia Petunias, Canada Thistle, Italian Arum, Hemp Agrimony, Eastern Beech, Cherry Blums, Blackberries, Hardy Fuchsia, Wisteria, Crabapple Tree, Ribston Pippin Apple Tree

Creativity

It was a challenge to tap into my creativity at the start of this month. I was still tired from traveling all over the UK and needed some time to input the stuff of life to refill my creativity bucket.

I got that idea of “inputs” from Ryan George of Pitch Meeting fame in this video (please ignore the terrifying eyes in the thumbnail – they never happen in the video):

After I took the time to relax and recoup from several weeks of fast travel, my creativity came trickling back, which I appreciated 🙂 . I have one more week of fast travel this year that might be a challenge to write during, but after that, the rest of my year is looking pretty chill so I’m excited to take full advantage of that and get back to a nice, leisurely writing schedule.

Emotional

My emotions were really good this month! I loved the slower pace of our life and our cottage in the woods was lovely. The only thing that raised my blood pressure this month was figuring out my first sweater knitting pattern, which sounds hilarious to me (knitting can be stressful – who knew🤣?) It was like reading instructions in a different language. Luckily I pulled through and knitting is back to being relaxing overall.

Something else that helped my emotions this month is that I got back into meditation after a little hiatus where I was focusing on other things. But now I’m back and it’s been helping me to pull myself out of unhelpful anxious thought spirals. I’m going to keep it up.

• Insight Timer: The Best Free Meditation App

Money

Fast traveling in the UK last month was unsurprisingly expensive, but this slower month in Bath was less so both because slow travel is cheaper and because Bath is not London 🙂 . However, it was all in my budget and I’ll balance these HCOL places with LCOL ones like I normally do. No worries.

But the big news this month is that I hit a new net worth milestone:

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I also made a fun discovery about my investment gains in retirement:

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And here’s where I netted out at the end of the month:

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Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in August! I had a lovely summer in the UK and am now ready to start making my way back home. However, I’m making a stop along the way 🙂 . Less than a year after my first visit, I’m going back to Iceland🇮🇸! Until next time.

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
7. The Month Of The UK: July 2025 Recap

What’s a fun fact you learned this month?