AK Month-to-month Recap: November 2025

Aha, right here we’re! Final month, I wrote that I most likely wouldn’t be capable of get a November recap out resulting from 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 acquired to writing my finest and worst of the 12 months 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 carried out 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 dwelling, and it was so good to get high quality time at dwelling with Charlie, the cats, and my mates.

One spotlight was going to a screening and dialogue of the movie Dogma, which one way or the other I had by no means seen. Seems it was deliberately unimaginable to stream as a result of Harvey Weinstein was holding onto the rights…however BITCH IS BROKE NOW, so he offered 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 little one is aware of make. It was enjoyable and I can’t wait to bake extra with them later this winter.

And we acquired to take pleasure in 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 12 months in Prague, however we had snow THREE DAYS IN A ROW! I feel this 12 months 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 12 months. 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 sequence specializing in Portuguese pasteis de nata, however with a lot of flavors. We beloved 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 a good quantity of bank card factors and we hoard them till we’ve got an excellent 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’ve gotten a snug seat, scrumptious meals, and unimaginable service.

A stupendous 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 a few of the finest components 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 characteristic a few of the bluest water I’ve ever seen.

Among the highlights have 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 excellent little compound for his or her friends), and simply driving round and discovering cool seashores and taking photographs. Willemstad is a reasonably superior Caribbean metropolis, too.

Challenges

I worn out within the snow and fell on my face. Enjoyable instances! I used to be on my strategy to a health care provider’s appointment on the hospital, and I slipped within the snow, fell on my fingers and knees, and my head appeared to only kiss the sidewalk.

However that kiss was sufficient to develop into monumental egg on my head. (I went in to see my physician, an ENT, and he or she stated, “You’re simply right here on your ear…proper?”)

Not solely that, however I shattered my cellphone display screen within the course of, simply two days earlier than we have been resulting from go away for Curaçao. Changing the glass was an enormous expense that required me to raid the “new tech” sinking fund in my finances. That class is meant to be for enjoyable stuff!

It’s been nearly per week and the bump is gone, fortunately, nevertheless it’s nonetheless tender on high.

An ear subject that snowballed into one thing extra. I hold most of my medical stuff non-public, however every so often one thing occurs that I feel extra individuals ought to learn about — so take the time to learn this.

Earlier this month, I wakened with what felt like a blocked ear. It appeared clogged and I couldn’t hear as nicely on that aspect. I began experiencing tinnitus, and later, pulsatile tinnitus (listening to your heartbeat in your ear). After a number of days with dwelling treatments, 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 severe ear points. I made it to the ENT 5 days after seeing the GP, took a listening to check and didn’t hear as nicely 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 may well entice fluid or strain within the ear and trigger muffled listening to, ache, or typically dizziness.

And for those who don’t get it handled in a well timed method, it could actually 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 have 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 Widespread Reel on Instagram

Autumn Vibes in Italy is an ode to our time in Piemonte in October this 12 months. If you wish to expertise Italy when the autumn colours are most lovely, you’ll love Piemonte in October!

For extra stay updates from my travels (presently posting numerous 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 it’s essential to watch it!!!

I don’t need to give a lot away, as a result of it’s higher entering into realizing much less. Do know that this present is by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Unhealthy (my all-time favourite drama!). And that is SUCH a Vince Gilligan present.

The fascinating 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 solid, and appears like a pleasant grown-up present. So glad they’ve expanded every season to eight episodes slightly than six.

And at last, Charlie and I’ve been watching Knife Edge on Apple TV+, which is a enjoyable documentary sequence about completely different eating places around the globe making an attempt to get Michelin stars. It’s actually entertaining and stuffed 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 Biggest Albums of All Time, which I’m having fun with immensely. I’m loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve one way or the other missed my whole life till now!

In November, I picked up the tempo and listened to greater than common — albums 209-176. I’ve listened to greater than 300 albums in lower than a 12 months! That blows my thoughts. Listed here 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 have been first rate sufficient, however the scope and ambition of Tommy floored me.

I used to be solely accustomed to 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 critically, 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 fascinating, and only a pleasure to take heed to. My favourite album by The Who for certain!

Different Favourite Discoveries: Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne, Endlessly Modifications by Love, Songs of Leonard Cohen by Leonard Cohen, Life After Demise 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 one in every of my all-time favourite artists and I used to be devastated when he died final month. I wrote in my publication about what his music meant to me through the years.

Greater than something, D’Angelo’s music feels supernatural to me. And Brown Sugar is the album the place you are feeling this probably the most — it feels SO acquainted, and but fully unique. You recognize this music inside your soul.

Brown Sugar was the album that spearheaded the neo-soul motion of the Nineteen Nineties, taking the vibes of basic 70s soul, gospel, and blues, and including on 90s modernity and hip-hop. These songs are extremely clean 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 hear. I would like extra individuals to know D’Angelo.

Favourite Songs: “Girl” 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 Large 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 possibly can take heed to it right here.

Lowlight of the Month: Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement. I truthfully don’t know why Pavement has three separate albums on Rolling Stone‘s listing. They’re a middling-sounding different band from the 90s. Like a bunch of highschool youngsters performing on the native VFW corridor.

And it’s not the style. Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer are each 90s different bands that may not has at all times acquired numerous 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 completely different variations every of “Shake,” “Outdated Man Hassle” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” together with six completely 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 each time I take heed to one in every 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 wished to wreck his personal life, that’s fantastic, however he ruined his music for all of us.

It’s value noting that the Rolling Stone listing is filled 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 Seventies in comparison with right now.

However critically, Kanye being an precise Nazi within the 12 months 2025 is a really distinctive and plain degree of depravity.

What I Learn This Month

Inform Me Every part 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 numerous plot on this guide — however there are numerous 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 assume leaping into the newest was a foul factor in any respect; this guide is extra about attending to know individuals’s emotions than the rest.

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 individuals of their sophisticated glory.

Which may not sound like the kind of guide you would possibly like. However I actually love books like these.

Actress of a Sure Age: My Twenty-12 months Path to In a single day Success by Jeff Hiller (2025) — I’ve been telling you guys ceaselessly that it’s essential to watch the present Any individual, Someplace on HBO, which is probably the most pleasant and life-affirming present, and it made a star out of Jeff Hiller, who received the Emmy for his efficiency this 12 months.

I like Jeff and I’m SO, SO joyful 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 superstar memoirs (actually, every chapter has the title of a celeb’s memoir!) and he is aware of what works, what doesn’t, and what individuals really need to learn.

The second is that it is a work memoir. I like work memoirs and the way they educate you a lot about how completely different jobs work, and this goes into depth in regards to the nitty-gritty of being a working actor — significantly a personality actor like Jeff, who has proven up in all the pieces from 30 Rock to Tremendous Bowl commercials. The sort of actor you notice on the subway and you already know you already know them from someplace.

However sure, this guide was a delight. Extremely advisable. I didn’t get it as an audiobook, however individuals say the audio model is terrific.

Coming Up in December 2025

December started with a number of extra days in Curaçao. Subsequent shall be Barbados — nation quantity 92! We’re spending a number of days in Barbados and attending to know the island, significantly on a cultural angle, earlier than we set sail on our cruise.

Sure, our cruise! We shall 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 number of days.

After which we fly dwelling 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 12 months? Share away!