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Aha, right here we’re! Final month, I wrote that I most likely wouldn’t be capable of get a November recap out as a result of my journey schedule, however I started working and wrote the lion’s share of the recap earlier than setting off on my journey.
Not solely that, however I obtained to writing my finest and worst of the yr posts forward of time. All I’ve so as to add is something that occurs throughout the subsequent few weeks. I’m happy with myself for really getting that completed forward of time!
Let’s dive into November. The month was GOOD.
Locations Visited
- Prague, Czech Republic
- London and Abbots Langley, England
- Willemstad, Shete Boka Nationwide Park, Lagun, Westpunt, Klein Curaçao, and Jan Thiel, Curaçao
Highlights
Nice instances in Prague. Many of the month was spent at house, and it was so good to get high quality time at house with Charlie, the cats, and my buddies.
One spotlight was going to a screening and dialogue of the movie Dogma, which by some means I had by no means seen. Seems it was deliberately unattainable to stream as a result of Harvey Weinstein was holding onto the rights…however BITCH IS BROKE NOW, so he bought it and we will watch it once more! Couldn’t have occurred to a nicer man! Oh, and the film was nice!!
We additionally had our five-year-old niece and three-year-old nephew over to bake a yogurt cake, a dish that each French baby is aware of methods to make. It was enjoyable and I can’t wait to bake extra with them later this winter.
And we obtained to get pleasure from a pleasant inventive market in Prague, the place we discovered an area vendor promoting salted caramel cashew butter. OMG, THAT STUFF IS GOOOOOOD. And harmful.
And we not solely had our first snowfall of the yr in Prague, however we had snow THREE DAYS IN A ROW! I feel this yr goes to be an intense winter.
A fast and good weekend journey to London. Charlie and I did a fast little journey to see his household as we received’t be seeing them for the vacations this yr. We visited London for 2 nights, had some good instances with the household, visited the Museum of Pure Historical past, and ate SO MUCH GOOD FOOD.
One of many highlights was Cafe de Nata, a series specializing in Portuguese pasteis de nata, however with a number of flavors. We liked the tarts with raspberries and pistachio finest.
Brixton Village was additionally a enjoyable meals cease, the place we ate scrumptious Chinese language, Japanese, and Mexican dishes. (Sure, London lastly has GOOD and LEGIT Mexican meals!)
Flying enterprise class on KLM. At this time limit, Charlie and I earn an honest quantity of bank card factors and we hoard them till we have now a superb alternative to take a enterprise class flight with KLM (and get two new KLM Homes for our assortment).
This month, we flew from Prague to Amsterdam to Curaçao in enterprise class, and it nonetheless blows my thoughts how rattling PLEASANT lengthy flights are when you could have a cushty seat, scrumptious meals, and unimaginable service.
A ravishing journey to Curaçao. We kicked off our four-week journey to the Caribbean in Curaçao, an island nation that’s a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. I’m working with the Curaçao Tourism Board to spotlight among the finest elements of this nation.
I actually like Curaçao! This island is an absolute feast for the eyes, from the brightly coloured Dutch structure in Willemstad to the seashores of Westpunt, which function among the bluest water I’ve ever seen.
A few of the highlights had been spending the day at Mondi Seaside Membership (which has a GREAT cabana deal for 2), taking a ship journey to Klein Curaçao with Mermaid Excursions (they’ve an ideal little compound for his or her visitors), and simply driving round and discovering cool seashores and taking photographs. Willemstad is a fairly superior Caribbean metropolis, too.
Challenges
I worn out within the snow and fell on my face. Enjoyable instances! I used to be on my method to a health care provider’s appointment on the hospital, and I slipped within the snow, fell on my palms and knees, and my head appeared to only kiss the sidewalk.
However that kiss was sufficient to develop into huge egg on my head. (I went in to see my physician, an ENT, and he or she mentioned, “You’re simply right here on your ear…proper?”)
Not solely that, however I shattered my telephone display screen within the course of, simply two days earlier than we had been as a result of depart for Curaçao. Changing the glass was an enormous expense that required me to raid the “new tech” sinking fund in my price range. That class is meant to be for enjoyable stuff!
It’s been nearly per week and the bump is gone, fortunately, but it surely’s nonetheless tender on prime.
An ear concern that snowballed into one thing extra. I preserve most of my medical stuff non-public, however from time to time one thing occurs that I feel extra folks ought to learn about — so take the time to learn this.
Earlier this month, I awoke with what felt like a blocked ear. It appeared clogged and I couldn’t hear as effectively on that aspect. I began experiencing tinnitus, and later, pulsatile tinnitus (listening to your heartbeat in your ear). After a couple of days with house cures, I noticed my GP, who thought it was irritated and gave me some drops.
That was a mistake. I ought to have seen an ENT, not a GP, as ENTs have the gear to diagnose extra critical ear points. I made it to the ENT 5 days after seeing the GP, took a listening to take a look at and didn’t hear as effectively on my left aspect, and discovered that I used to be probably experiencing Eustachian Tube Dysfunction.
Eustachian Tube Dysfunction is when the small tube that connects your center ear to the again of your nostril stops opening and shutting correctly. It could actually lure fluid or stress within the ear and trigger muffled listening to, ache, or typically dizziness.
And should you don’t get it handled in a well timed method, it could result in everlasting listening to loss.
The therapy is a course of highly effective steroids, and I’m so relieved that THEY WORKED. The meds took impact slowly, and restoration was not linear, however over the course of two weeks, I used to be again to regular.
Let this be a lesson to you — when you’ve got unexplained ear points like this, don’t go to your GP. Go straight to an ENT. These few days could make a distinction in preserving your listening to.
New This Month
Most Common Reel on Instagram
Autumn Vibes in Italy is an ode to our time in Piemonte in October this yr. If you wish to expertise Italy when the autumn colours are most lovely, you’ll love Piemonte in October!
For extra reside updates from my travels (at the moment posting loads of Curaçao tales!), comply with me on Instagram at @adventurouskate.
What I Watched This Month
Pluribus. Guys, Pluribus is THE new It Present on Apple TV+, and you have to watch it!!!
I don’t need to give a lot away, as a result of it’s higher entering into figuring out much less. Do know that this present is by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Dangerous (my all-time favourite drama!). And that is SUCH a Vince Gilligan present.
The attention-grabbing pictures. The lengthy, mysterious chilly opens. The super-fast plot speedalongs that happen in episode two, whereas a lesser showrunner would put it aside for the season finale. THE CHARACTERS.
Severely, this present is wild. Give it a watch.
Additionally this month, I watched The Diplomat on Netflix, which is SUCH A GOOD POLITICAL THRILLER, brilliantly forged, and looks like a pleasant grown-up present. So glad they’ve expanded every season to eight episodes relatively than six.
And at last, Charlie and I’ve been watching Knife Edge on Apple TV+, which is a enjoyable documentary collection about totally different eating places world wide attempting to get Michelin stars. It’s actually entertaining and filled with surprises.
(And it makes me need to dine solo in any respect of them, as a result of each time a mysterious solo diner walks in, everybody freaks out and thinks they’re a Michelin inspector and treats them like a VIP.)
What I Listened To This Month
I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Best Albums of All Time, which I’m having fun with immensely. I’m loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve by some means missed my total life till now!
In November, I picked up the tempo and listened to greater than normal — albums 209-176. I’ve listened to greater than 300 albums in lower than a yr! That blows my thoughts. Listed below are the highlights:
Favourite Discovery: Tommy by The Who. I’ve listened to a couple albums by The Who on this listing and so they had been first rate sufficient, however the scope and ambition of Tommy floored me.
I used to be solely conversant in their music “Pinball Wizard” (I even carried out it with my glee membership in faculty!), and I knew this album was a complete musical, however I didn’t anticipate it to be…taken so significantly, if that is smart?
I anticipated this album to be a bunch of songs telling a narrative. I didn’t anticipate orchestral items, repeating musical motifs, and an equally shocking quantity of bombast and restraint. Actually wild, actually attention-grabbing, and only a pleasure to hearken to. My favourite album by The Who for positive!
Different Favourite Discoveries: Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne, Endlessly Modifications by Love, Songs of Leonard Cohen by Leonard Cohen, Life After Dying by The Infamous B.I.G., Physique Discuss by Robyn, Worry of a Black Planet by Public Enemy.
Favourite Revisited Album: Brown Sugar by D’Angelo. D’Angelo is certainly one of my all-time favourite artists and I used to be devastated when he died final month. I wrote in my e-newsletter about what his music meant to me over time.
Greater than something, D’Angelo’s music feels supernatural to me. And Brown Sugar is the album the place you are feeling this essentially the most — it feels SO acquainted, and but fully unique. You understand this music inside your soul.
Brown Sugar was the album that spearheaded the neo-soul motion of the Nineteen Nineties, taking the vibes of traditional 70s soul, gospel, and blues, and including on 90s modernity and hip-hop. These songs are extremely easy and luscious. The preparations are stripped down and intimate. And my favourite factor is that the lyrics are so respectful to and loving of ladies.
Give Brown Sugar a pay attention. I would like extra folks to know D’Angelo.
Favourite Songs: “Woman” by D’Angelo, “Joga” by Bjork, “Comfy” by Lil Wayne and Babyface, “Name Your Girlfriend” by Robyn, “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper, “Rock Lobster” by The B-52’s, “Burn Hollywood Burn” by Public Enemy, Ice Dice, and Huge Daddy Kane.
Get the playlist: I’m making a playlist of my favourite songs from the five hundred albums — most one per album — on Spotify. You may hearken to it right here.
Lowlight of the Month: Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement. I actually don’t know why Pavement has three separate albums on Rolling Stone‘s listing. They’re a middling-sounding various band from the 90s. Like a bunch of highschool children performing on the native VFW corridor.
And it’s not the style. Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer are each 90s various bands which may not has at all times acquired loads of respect, however their albums on this listing (Siamese Dream and Weezer, respectively) are FAR higher than something I’ve ever heard by Pavement.
Additionally, I really like Otis Redding, however did Rolling Stone actually have to incorporate a compilation album with 4 totally different variations every of “Shake,” “Previous Man Hassle” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” together with six totally different variations of “Respect”? Come on.
Random Music Ideas: I’ve been livid at Kanye West since he began saying horrifically anti-Semitic issues, and that anger flares up every time I hearken to certainly one of his albums. This month, Commencement.
As a result of I LOVED KANYE. His music was the soundtrack to my membership nights in Boston within the 2000s. Commencement is a fucking nice album, Kanye is among the finest hip-hop visionaries of all time, and if he needed to break his personal life, that’s effective, however he ruined his music for all of us.
It’s value noting that the Rolling Stone listing is stuffed with problematic artists, as a result of, hey, musicians are fairly often problematic. The sheer variety of rock stars who slept with underage ladies, for instance, even when society didn’t see that as a foul factor within the Nineteen Seventies in comparison with right now.
However significantly, Kanye being an precise Nazi within the yr 2025 is a very distinctive and simple stage of depravity.
What I Learn This Month
Inform Me The whole lot by Elizabeth Strout (2025) — Elizabeth Strout’s newest novel in regards to the residents of Crosby, Maine, asks questions on what makes a significant life. There’s not loads of plot on this guide — however there are loads of conversations and emotions.
That is the second guide of Strout’s I’ve learn — the primary was Olive Kitteridge — and now I need to return and skim all of them so as. I don’t suppose leaping into the most recent was a foul factor in any respect; this guide is extra about attending to know folks’s emotions than anything.
Above all — I really like the no-nonsense rural New Englandness of the characters. I really like how each single emotion is observed and given consideration. And I really like how this exhibits folks of their difficult glory.
Which may not sound like the kind of guide you may like. However I actually love books like these.
Actress of a Sure Age: My Twenty-Yr Path to In a single day Success by Jeff Hiller (2025) — I’ve been telling you guys eternally that you have to watch the present Anyone, Someplace on HBO, which is essentially the most pleasant and life-affirming present, and it made a star out of Jeff Hiller, who received the Emmy for his efficiency this yr.
I am keen on Jeff and I’m SO, SO blissful for his success. There are two issues that I loved about this mild and pleasant memoir. The primary is that Jeff himself has learn TONS of celeb memoirs (the truth is, every chapter has the title of a celeb’s memoir!) and he is aware of what works, what doesn’t, and what folks really need to learn.
The second is that this can be a work memoir. I am keen on work memoirs and the way they train you a lot about how totally different jobs work, and this goes into depth in regards to the nitty-gritty of being a working actor — notably a personality actor like Jeff, who has proven up in all the pieces from 30 Rock to Tremendous Bowl commercials. The form of actor you see on the subway and them from someplace.
However sure, this guide was a delight. Extremely really helpful. I didn’t get it as an audiobook, however folks say the audio model is terrific.
Coming Up in December 2025
December started with a couple of extra days in Curaçao. Subsequent might be Barbados — nation quantity 92! We’re spending a couple of days in Barbados and attending to know the island, notably on a cultural angle, earlier than we set sail on our cruise.
Sure, our cruise! We might be spending per week on a small ship cruise with Star Clippers, who’re internet hosting us. The cruise departs from Barbados and visits St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Lucia, and Martinique. I’m so excited to go to these new locations and benefit from the small ship cruise life!
Subsequent, we’re flying to the island of Dominica for a little bit of down time and nature time. Our last vacation spot would be the island of St. Martin (French aspect!) for a couple of days.
After which we fly house to Boston for Christmas, the place I’ll be spending time with my family members in Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont.
We fly again to Prague on the finish of the month. And I received’t be going anyplace for 2 months after that.
What are your plans for the tip of the yr? Share away!
