THIS BANK HOLIDAY weekend we saw The Batman. We're not normally into superhero films, but this one is with Robert Pattinson, so we made an exception. It was really long⏤nearly three hours! And maybe a little on the slow side? It began very promisingly with the gritty cityscape and a voiceover and Nirvana's Something in the Way drifting through the air but then lost its way ...
IF YOU WANT to know my idea of perfect happiness, it's the somnolence of a Sunday morning, freshly ground coffee beans from our favourite roastery in London, conversations over P's homemade oat milk flat whites (in my new handmade pottery cups), a late lingering breakfast and nothing to do with a whole day ahead. That's the kind of weekend we had it was wonderful ...
HOW IS YOUR long weekend going? It's an official bank holiday here in England, so some things are still closed and there are no parcel deliveries, which means that everything we've been expecting will have to wait until at least tomorrow or later. The weather was perfect! Warm and springlike, sunny and filled with cherry blossoms and the last of the daffodils ...
JUST FINISHED Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown and have decided to reread Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera because I needed something engrossing and fantastical as a break from the daily news cycle. I'd forgotten what an all-consuming (love) story it is and how beautifully written ...
WAS SPEAKING to P today about how these little musings are becoming more and more difficult with everything that has been going on in the world over the past while. After seeing all the horrific images that come out of Ukraine this weekend, feel like I've finally seen too much. That I know too much to still be optimistic. And yet, can't help but still believe in the beauty of this world, of this life⏤even if we have to look extra hard these days to find it ...
THIS WEEKEND WE screened the 1983 film Risky Business on the projector. P has seen it many times before, but it was my first time, much to his horror⏤a classic in his opinion. On Monday we awoke to the chaotic madness of the Oscars slap and is it just us, or is the world getting weirder?
THE BEAUTIFUL sunshine streaming through the windows is at odds with this morning's news of more shelling in Ukraine and a plane crash in China. Every night for the past week, I have been falling asleep to dreams of war. The nights are frenetic and uneasy, the mornings much more calm with lucid thoughts over coffee, at least until the news cycle begins again ...
CAME ACROSS this quote by Dr. Seuss yesterday morning: “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory.” And it struck a chord because it feels like lately, that we're always waiting/hoping to move past current situations and times and on to better ones ...
JUST FINISHED booking a hotel for another quick trip to Edinburgh in a few weeks. It feels strange to continue with ordinary things when the world feels anything but. It's the same reason why you probably noticed that we've been a little quiet on all of our social media channels lately. On the first day of spring, our little niece turns three, so I had the pleasure of spending some time ordering tiny clothing, books and toys to send as gifts ...
FRIDAY WE WERE glued to the coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I saw women saying tearful good-byes to their soldier husbands and boyfriends, and Ukrainians forming long queues to donate blood and do their bit for their country. I saw a man at a train station saying good-bye to his wife and children, and when he got to his youngest (who couldn't be more than two years old) break down with heavy wracking sobs, hugging her for what he feared might be his very last time ...
JANUARY LASTED a million days but February seems to be flying by. There is sunshine and birdsong, snowdrops, and today we saw a tree blooming with delicate white blossoms. It just as quickly clouded over and there were rainy spells here and there (it is England, after all), but overall, it's been feeling rather springlike. Of course, there are terrible floods again in the south, but hopefully all these weekend storms will pass by soon and we can look forward to warmer days ...
HAPPY VALENTINE'S Day! Do you have anything special planned? This weekend we finally had a chance to watch Nomadland the 2020 film written, produced, edited and directed by Chloé Zhao. It was, in a word, depressing. Poignant, perhaps to the point of heartbreak. In way though, it also made me thankful for my life and the things I have and reminded me to not take them for granted (ever), just as it made me really think about the future in a way I never had before, being someone who spends life between living in the moment and dwelling on the past ...
ON FRIDAY WE travelled to a seaside village about an hour from here to celebrate something special. P had made late lunch reservations at a new restaurant that has only been open for less than a year (and much of it during various lockdowns) and we'd heard that it was supposed to be good, locally grown produce and all that. It's one of those charming places that have several roaring fires and wood-burning stoves and promised to be cosy ...
AS YOU PROBABLY already know, TIG was down due to technical issues with the server from late Friday afternoon until this morning―apologies to those of you who receive the newsletter and were unable to click through to the site from any of the links. For the first time in a very long time, there was no chance to sneak in a few extra moments of work over the weekend or catch up on upcoming projects, which meant making the most of the sunny mornings ...
THIS WEEKEND was a classic homebody one with slow mornings and late evenings. P stopped by the local delicatessen for a fancy loaf of bread for brunch and contemplated making Fideuà ...
