If We Were Having Coffee (22 Sept, 2020)
Good morning, friends! This week I am staunchly trying to ignore the storm clouds gathering on the pandemic horizon and instead thinking about how I can continue to build some low-risk social contact into my life (short answer: keep it outdoors, keep it well-ventilated). So, if you had come around to my flat and we were having coffee (in the living room, because my kitchen window doesn’t open!), I’d be telling you about:
A wonderful article by Tracey Thorne in the New Statesman, about how she has also finally come out of her shell enough to enjoy some of our newest freedoms, but fears she has left it too late and they’re about to be snatched away. I had my first pint in a pub with a pal since February on Saturday and really enjoyed it. Combined with fish and chips in the park afterwards, it just felt like ‘a great evening’, not ‘a great evening, given the situation.’
The idea of really leaning into what makes me happy this autumn. It’s going to be a spooky season and Advent unlike any other, but that doesn’t have to make it a bad one. I joined another friend in our local roller rink on Sunday (it only reopened on the 11th, and we had the whole space to ourselves - pretty safe then, and easy to maintain a safe physical distance from each other while having a good chinwag nonetheless) and had a whale of a time.
A new-to-me series of books by Jenny Colgan, initially published under the name Jane Beaton - school stories for adults. Um, yes please! I devoured the first in the series, Class, in about 90 minutes last Sunday. It brought back all the escapism of Malory Towers and the Chalet School but with a bit more grown-up intrigue (and the enigmatic English teacher at the boys’ school over the hill!).
M&S managed to take over my corner of the internet last week with the launch of a range of Percy Pig Christmas gift items including the Giant (90cm tall) Percy stuffed toy.
After a very important board meeting at Percy Pig HQ, the cuddliest (and piggyest) toy EVER is ready for launch at your local M&S!I knew I needed one - and brought this new flatmate home from the shop with me at the weekend (this isn’t even the Giant one, but the next size down).
My most ridiculous pandemic purchase yet? Jury’s still out.
Talking of pandemic purchases, I found this article on The Atlantic about online shopping and supply chains completely fascinating. I subscribed to The Atlantic this time last year and it’s been a really good choice - their coverage of 2020’s chaos has been top-notch. My year’s subscription has just come to an end and I’m going to try and catch up on the physical issues I’ve received over the course of the year before reinstating it.
I was watching one of Kristin Lehrer/Voolenvine’s vlogs and she mentioned the fantastic Instagram account colorpalette.cinema - this account’s shtick is to take a representative still from a film and pick out the colours. For example, Lady Bird (I love that palette!):
And when I saw this still and palette from Emma, I knew why I had loved the film so much - these are exactly the colours I gravitate towards in yarn and clothing. (It’s essentially a slightly brighter version of the Lady Bird palette, really, isn’t it?)
A real joy over the last few months has been the acquisition of a bevy on pen-pals all around the world, via Rachel Syme’s #penpalooza.
Going to keep this pinned for a while because people keep asking how to get into #penpalooza. This is how! Open through 2020! Over 4500 people in 50 countries! Send letters! Why not?so #penpalooza just hit 4000 ppl! just a little note about what it is/how to join for those who are wondering... in early summer i asked if anyone would like to start writing snail mail to strangers; people seemed into it so i set up this exchange: https://t.co/ZydsVA8wpN
rachel syme @rachsymeFor the real high-school vibe, I now have a pen-pal in Hamburg, and we write back and forth in German. I haven’t written in German since I graduated from uni in 2016, so it’s been a really great brain workout. I have also got pen-pals in places all around the world that I’ve never visited and may never visit (California! Portugal!) so it’s exciting that a letter I’ve written can go there, even if I can’t. For good measure, I’ve also started writing to my childhood pen-pal again; we ‘met’ via the Brownie magazine ‘find a pen-friend’ column in about 2003. At the moment I have this letter paper with images of Matilda on the go - it makes me very happy indeed.
Another playlist put together by Michael Bernardini on Spotify - All Pumpkin Everything. 29 hours of autumnal music perfect for a hyggelig vibe. I also found a can of pumpkin puree in Sainsbury’s on Friday so pumpkin loaf is very much on the agenda for the coming week.
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Lately I have continued to get my groceries by bike most weeks (supplemented with a supermarket delivery every month or so) and the real MVP of this has been the baskets I have which hook onto the back of my bike. I bought the first one well over two years ago and finally bought a second a month or so ago:
The baskets swallow up groceries really well and are pretty easy to pack, then they just lift out of my pannier rack when I get home, so it’s a zero-fuss solution.
I wish I hadn’t been so prescient as to talk about Ruth Bader Ginsburg in last week’s note. For those of you in the USA, my thoughts are absolutely with you, from the uncertainty and worry of the next six weeks to the entire period until the inauguration next January. Stay Notorious. 👊 (If you haven’t seen the 2019 biopic, On The Basis Of Sex, I would highly recommend it - on Amazon Prime in the UK)
I hope you all stay safe and well, and I’ll talk to you next week.
Best,
Lily
Find me on Instagram: @LilyMCooks
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