I’m still here! Had a brief period of radio silence in London, but I’m still alive.

Truth is, nothing really exciting happened the past week. I’m lucky to visit London fairly frequently and I can say I know it well, so I don’t do the typical tourist things anymore. I haven’t even walked past Big Ben this time!

Estou por aqui! Foram alguns dias de silêncio em Londres, mas continuo viva.

De fato, nada muito empolgante aconteceu nesta semana. Londres é uma cidade que eu tenho a sorte de visitar com frequência e considero que até conheço bem, então não fico mais fazendo programa turístico, para ser bem sincera. Nem passei pelo Big Ben nessa visita!

When I say I take advantage of my holidays in the UK to do some shopping some people think it’s weird, considering the high value of the pound. But the truth is I learnt how to shop well for less here. So here are some quick tips that might help you too:

• Non-Europeans who will export the product they bought to another continent are entitled to recieve the VAT (tax) back. All you need to do is request the ‘tax-free form’ when you’re paying. There’s usually a minimum amount for the purchase to qualify, between £30 and £50, depending on the shop. If your purchase qualifies, you’ll receive the VAT back, minus an admin fee. For small purchases, it might almost not be worth it, but for electronics or more expensive things, you can save a lot. In 2014 I bought an LV bag £1150 and received a little more than £100 back. Not bad!

If you’ve been following my posts, you know on Jul. 24^th my husband Ian and I flew to the UK. I decided to go on holiday now that I’m between jobs, because once I get another one, it will be a year before we can travel again. And since Ian is from Wales, the choice was to spend a few days in London and then 2 more weeks there visiting his family.

We normally fly TAM (now LATAM) to London, because I try to use my points with them to issue one of the tickets for free. Except for last year, when I didn’t have enough points and sought a cheaper option. We flew Alitalia e stretched the holiday an extra week to visit Rome. Rome was amazing, Alitalia wasn’t. I’m never flying with them again. I have a feeling they don’t have return customers.

I’m a lazy packer. As well as unpacker – once I actually unpacked only when it was time to pack again for another trip, a month later. I’m that kind of person who leaves it to the night before the flight and hopes to remember everything that needs to be taken.

On Sunday I’m travelling to the UK (get ready for weeks of posts with UK related tips) and the most I’ve done so far was washing all the dirty clothes that had been piling up in my closet, so I have more options to choose from. The thing is, I’m always there in the winter, between February and March. This will be my first British summer, guys! And I’m slightly lost when it comes to how the weather will be there. Siri swears it will be above 20ºC everyday, but we all know she’s a terrible weather girl, right?