Six Sweet Moments
Hello!
Happy Friday! The sun is shining and all is well here. I’ve had a lovely week full of sweet moments which I’m going to list here:
Sweet moment #1: It’s been pouring with rain in the UK and I have been working in Stone Bros cafe most days. One afternoon, I was about to leave when it was still raining. I had no umbrella so Kem, who runs the place with his brother Harry, told me to wait and he ran to his car, got his umbrella and walked me home under it!
Sweet moment #2 Me and my neighbours have been invited to Harry’s wedding in September! Nelly is already planning outfits.
Sweet moment #3 Yesterday was Nelly’s 36th birthday. I keep meaning to write about her and all the extraordinary things she does but capturing her will take more brain power than I have right now, so instead, here is a picture of her on her birthday when Thomas and I got up early to buy pain aux raisins and delivered them to her with candles and balloons. She was dressed for breakfast like a princess and we played Stevie Wonder. Then, we went to an art exhibition and when we came home she’d been sent flowers from NASA— which is quite a normal thing in Nelly’s world.
Sweet moment #4 I got a message from a woman who read Help Me in Iran. She told me that we might live in very different countries but she could relate to everything I wrote. She also asked me to tell mum she was wonderful. Which I did.
Many moons ago I had a fling with a German man I met in Dublin. I met him just before he was going back home and for a while we texted. He told me that we could meet again in Dublin, Paris, New York... ‘The world is not so big,’ he said. We never did meet but the line stayed with me and I am reminded of it every time I get a message from someone in a different country. ‘The world is not so big.’
Sweet moment #5 I feel like five is a good number to end on. After much tension, I think my sister’s dog and I might be entering a new phase in our relationship. Nell is a rescue dog and Sheila got her a few months ago. She is very, very cute with everyone but me. When I get close she barks like I’m about to murder Sheila or rob the house, which isn’t usually my intention. However, I spent so many hours drinking whiskey at Sheila’s last Friday that Nell got quite bored of me and this week, I didn’t get any barks. Just a yawn.
Ah! And I just thought of sweet moment #6 Heading into Soho to meet my friend Claire for dinner on Tuesday and walking past Hare Krishnas singing on one side of Soho square and a guy off his face dancing to techno on the other side. In the middle, a couple was practicing what looked like Tango. She was in a proper black dress and he was wearing dancing shoes. A gorgeous London moment. It was nice to be back.
I am thinking a lot about this quote at the moment. It’s from Pema Chodron who is a Buddhist nun and writer.
‘We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again.’
I find this very comforting. Like many of us, I imagine, it felt like things fell apart this last year and now it’s nice to feel them coming together again. For a while at least.
WHAT I’M READING
This article about people being happy to see each other again was lovely.
And I enjoyed this from Nikki on the power of journaling. Some of you will know Nikki from the writing sessions she holds, if you want more details check out her Instagram.
This interview with Star Trek’s William Shatner was gorgeous. He is 90 and his life advice is ‘Take it easy, nothing matters in the end’ but he admitted that he was glad he didn’t know this when he was younger; if he had, he would have done nothing.
A few years ago, in an attempt to be highbrow and literary I took out a subscription to the New Yorker. The issues kept piling up and I kept not reading them so I cancelled the subscription. Now, my neighbour has taken out a subscription and the issues are piling up and he keeps not reading them. So he is passing some of them on to me and this time I’m actually reading them. I liked this short story about a party happening next door to an old woman grieving her dead partner. Also, this was sad and interesting about machine companions helping to alleviate loneliness in the elderly. And I loved this article about artist Francis Bacon who managed to combine heavy drinking with getting up at 6am to paint. How do people do that? I’m still recovering from the whiskey a week ago.
Emma Gannon’s newsletter comes out once a month and I always enjoy it. She has a brilliant reading list at the end.
Other newsletters I’m enjoying are from: Tiffany Philippou, Ryan Holliday, Nick Cave, Antonia Taylor, Freelance Feels, Austin Kleon, The Bluestocking, Oliver Burkeman, Jules Evans and James Clear who shares a brilliant quote every week. I liked this one from his latest email:
"The list of mistakes you can never recover from is very short.
But you likely realize your life will not be destroyed if your book doesn’t sell or if a potential date turns you down or if your startup goes bust. It’s not the failed outcome that paralyzes us. It’s the possibility of looking stupid, feeling humiliated, or dealing with embarrassment that prevents us from getting started at all.
The first step to being courageous is being willing to look foolish."
Susan Jeffers says the same thing in Feel the Fear And Do It Anyway: that most of our fears are based on our ego getting dented to which she says: ‘You’ll handle it!’ and you have to imagine that being said in a droll, seen-it-all-before, American accent.
You can view my full list of recommended books below.
WHAT I’M WATCHING
Claire Coleman’s beauty videos! My friend Claire is an award winning beauty journalist who has started her own Patreon channel doing in-depth beauty analysis. She has this weekly video called ‘Yes but it is better than…’ where she compares a new product with a classic version of the same thing. I love them! The tension of not knowing who is going to win! Of not knowing the Primark product will out-perform the Space NK one! Claire properly tests the products so this is like the Which? Guide to skincare / haircare / makeup. She will also take commissions and test out products that you are curious about. Check her out on Patreon or Instagram if you are into beauty.
Mare of East Town. It’s SO good. It stars Kate Winslet as a detective in a small town in America where everybody is connected to everybody and a young woman has been murdered. I have no clue how it’s going to unravel but at the moment it seems like every man in town could be guilty. Maybe ALL of them are.
Also I watched Halston and enjoyed it. It was superficial and glitzy but I think that was the point. It’s about the fashion designer Halston who was best friends with Liza Minelli and created dresses around the Studio 54 era. Ewan McGregor is the star; I’m not usually a fan but he is great in this.
WHAT I’M BUYING
Too many effing pain aux raisins! My jeans are no longer doing up. Halston would not approve.
Join us tomorrow to see me in a skimpy black dress in which I will flaunt (as the Daily Mail would put it) my Pain au Raisin curves!
In this week’s Writing for Fun and Sanity we are exploring alter egos; the parts of us that we don’t usually express. It might be the angry, sarcastic side of us. Or the bossy, powerful side. Or the masculine / feminine side. Or in my case — the sexy, fearless side.
I was telling the last writing group about a meditation I did with my friend Aisling where this character called Annie appeared. Annie is a sex pot and was on stage in a skin-tight black dress. Annie is like my Jessica Rabbit alter ego and she never comes out. BUT THIS SATURDAY SHE WILL!
So join us if you want to find out more about your alter ego. You can come wearing something you don't usually wear or just come as you are and we'll do some scribbling and chatting around the topic. Saturday 1PM-2.30PM BST. Click here to reserve a ticket, June sessions are now available too.
Thank you Emma Griffin for inspiring this workshop. Emma is a copywriter for lots of big companies and writes helpful stuff for businesses wanting tips on how to communicate with their customers. You can check out her Insta here.
Love and hugs to you. xx