Yes, I know it’s Wednesday but Sky broadband decided to have a cute network outage in our area yesterday, almost like they don’t care that I have this fortnightly nonsense newsletter to write?!
Hope you’re all ok besties, what’s been going on? My main update is that I accidentally kicked my dog’s favourite football into a river this morning so I’m currently having a lot of feelings about that because I am sensitive and therefore am consumed with guilt.
Here’s what’s tickling my pickle this week.
The Wicked trailer
No notes. Ok, one note. Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard is INSPIRED casting. Can’t wait.
Hot Slut merch
If you follow me on Instagram (lol who do I think I am) you’ll know that I enjoy Jonathan Van Ness’s weekly confidence boosting reels, so I am obsessed with the fact that he has released merchandise!!!
It’s sold out and also I do not need any more sweatshirts, but I had to include it for the product shots. Businesses, take note.
This article about the aeropress
If, like me, you are in a constant battle between the fall of our society due to capitalism and the urge to buy things, you might enjoy this article. I absolutely love reading about people who do the thing, and then are just happy with the thing that they’ve done. It doesn’t need to become a whole new megaballs expensive thing that’s actually lower quality because they’ve outsourced every element of it and now it’s just not what it was, despite the fact they’re charging triple the price, y’know?
Anyway, here’s ‘What a cultish coffee gizmo says about 21st century capitalism’
Also, it’s on the FT which made me feel like a right fancy business bitch.
Fashun accessories
Talking of buying stuff and being a capitalist nightmare, I am in the market for a new watch because mine is not working and yes actually, I probably could get it fixed (prolly just needs a new battery), but also look at this Baby G Shock Watch!!! There are several reasons why I want one of these, specifically because the Spice Girls had a Baby-G range in the 90s and when I was a child I was never allowed a digital watch (what a loser). You can keep your fancy Apple watches, I want basic retro wrist wear that will not allow me to make phone calls.
Great British Menu
Bone apple teeth! My telly recommendation this week is Great British Menu. I don’t know why I love this show because it is ridiculously time consuming and the false ‘bro’ drama annoys me (“If he manages to pull it off, it would be amazing. But if he doesn’t… it could be terrible”), but I lovveeee seeing how the chefs interpret the brief and I like to learn about fancy new ingredients that I will never eat because I’m not classy enough to dine at a Michelin starred restaurant. Nasturtium leaves, anyone?
This podcast about being socially awkward
I’m a big fan of Simon Sinek’s podcast ‘A Bit of Optimism’. It’s technically a business / careers pod, but I like it because it features a different person each week talking about life, leadership and general learnings. This week, I listened to the episode with Ty Tashiro about social awkwardness and when I tell you I felt SEEEEEN.
Definitely worth a listen, so check out past episodes if you’re in the market for some new learnings.
Vegetables
We bought 'In Praise of Veg' recently and have actually used it several times for more than one recipe, which is the greatest review you can have for a cookbook. I am very guilty of making the same things on repeat when I like a recipe, I will eat it every other day until I am sick of it and myself, so it’s nice to have a bit of variety!
Would recommend the kimchi beans, the broccolini Caesar salad, and I have it on good authority that the butter carrots recipe is a banger too.
Withdrawing from job interviews
I withdrew myself from a couple of job interviews this week because I think I am in the process of having a mid-life crisis career change moment.
Putting this in here because I am *manifesting* opening my own bookshop and so maybe there’s some scope in speaking (newslettering?) it into existence. I’ve been saying for a while that ‘one day’ I would like to open a book-and-coffee shop and it would basically just be a space where people could come and be safe and weird and find cool stuff to buy. It would allow me not to have to pretend to be normal in office environments that I hate and just do not understand the vibe, and it would mean I could do what I love which is chat away to people on a daily basis while selling books (yes, I know there would be more to it than that).
As you can see, it’s very much at the delusional ideas stage at the moment, but I’m researching and business planning so I will keep you posted. You also have permission to hold me accountable so that when my dogshit low self esteem is getting the better of me, feel free to tell me to buck up my ideas and crack on.
That’s all this week besties! Hope you’ve got some delishy Valentine’s Day plans afoot this evening, whether you’re treating yourself or someone else. Remember, the most important relationship is the one you have with yourself because if you can’t love yourself how the hell are you going to love somebody else?
Love ya xx