If We Were Having Coffee (6-8 Oct, 2020)

Back in the game, going back to the trial, I'm going back in my style

Oct 06, 2020

Morning, folks! I didn’t intend to miss last week’s newsletter, but sometimes the day job takes up all my capacity, and given that it a) pays the bills and b) is about saving the world (through green investing), I can’t complain too much! Last week at work was doubly busy, because as well as all the usual, I was preparing for my first full week off since 2019?! Next week I’ll tell you all about what I got up to with my time off (ETA: I hit ‘publish’ on this post on Monday to go out on Tuesday as planned but somehow didn’t actually send it out? Sending it now!). In the meantime, if we were having coffee:

We would be having coffee outside - the best-ventilated place of all - because in Scotland we are now not allowed to go inside other people’s homes. I would bring down a few slices of this delicious pound cake I made, according to Dan Lepard’s 2007 recipe, adulterated only by adding some vanilla essence and about half a teaspoon of mixed spice.
I’d tell you that I’ve started my Dissent sweater (non-Ravelry link); a knitter friend of mine had the idea to run a ‘Dissentalong’ and it feels important and somewhat defiant to be making it just now. By the way, if you don’t know about Marty Ginsburg, you should - there is a Vogue article about their partnership which is worth a read (and which made me cry a little). The world needs more Martys.
Starting the Dissent sweater has been the first time since January I’ve broken out of a method which has worked amazingly well for my knitting - the Gideon method. I’ve linked you there to the Wool and Honey blog which explains it in detail, but the premise is that you pick five projects to work on in rotation, twelve hours on each, until either you finish one or you make the conscious choice to sub one out. Following this rhythm, I have finished more knitting projects this year than ever before - two adult-sized sweaters, two pairs of socks, a cowl, a baby sweater, and a pair of cabled writers - and we still have three months of the year to go. The tool I use to track it is a timesheet app called Toggl, along with a tick-list in Google Keep (also one of my favourite apps).
On last week’s BBC Podlitical podcast (an excellent way to keep up with what’s going on in Holyrood, for my fellow residents of Scotland and/or devolution nerds) there was some discussion about how we all feel about the increase in restrictions again. My view then - and now - is that I’d much prefer slightly stricter rules to this strange party-pooper/Cassandra feeling I get when I see people partying like it’s 2019. Pippa Bailey has written an excellent column for the New Statesman about how it feels to have very different comfort levels from your friends and to feel nostalgic for the collectivism of this last horrible Spring.
My favourite Harry Potter podcast is back in business! Witch Please is explicitly feminist, inclusive, and anti-TERF, and a key part of this new series is them wrestling with how to be a fan of something with such a problematic author (my take: yes, JKR experiencing such a degree of anger and threats is perhaps a symptom of misogyny, but I can’t stand with anyone spreading such insidious hatred towards a marginalised community. Or, more curtly: punching down isn’t cool, JKR). In this new era of the podcast they are looking at each book as it relates to a series of themes - so far I’ve listened to episodes around The Chosen One, Orientalism, and Animals as they appear in Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone and I have learnt SO MUCH, both as a writer and as a student of history.
You know how sometimes, hidden within a recipe book, is a new way of cooking something which changes your life? The last time that happened to me was the baked gnocchi in Rukmini Iyer’s The Roasting Tin books, and it’s happened again! Within Katy Beskow’s 15-Minute Vegan On A Budget (reduced to £5 as I write this!!) she includes instructions for pan-roasting veg. To say much more would be to give away the special sauce (not sure balsamic vinegar has ever been described as special sauce before?), but it’s super easy and in the space of a week I’ve used this way of preparing veg three times - once following the instructions to the letter, once as fajita veg with a dollop of chipotle paste and some kebab-spiced soya chunks, and once with the veg I happened to have in the kitchen. Delicious piled on toast, as a side, or with pasta (try stirring some Boursin through!).
This week I have mostly been listening to film soundtracks. A new favourite is Isobel Waller-Bridge’s score for Emma (the last film I saw before cinemas closed, and I saw it twice!), which is tonally very different from my other favourites - Atonement (Dario Marianelli) and Inside Out (Michael Giacchino). John Debney’s score for Home Again is wonderful too - back to that Nancy Meyers vibe!
I am now in TWO book groups! - what more madness might 2020 hold? Last week we talked about Life As A Unicorn with my main book group, which was a really interesting chat. Our next read is His Bloody Project, which I’ve already started and I’m finding perfect for the darker nights we’re already experiencing. Meanwhile my work book group talked about The Glass Hotel and is now moving onto The Only Good Indians.
As travel looks to become a bit shaky again, I want to share a ‘hack’ for UK train travel. If you book Advance train tickets (for any route) through Crosscountry.co.uk, you can change them for free if you need to alter your plans. Normally you’d have to pay a £10 change fee for Advance tickets so this is a Big Deal - for the kind of journeys that you know you’ll do at some point, even if it’s not when you originally planned to.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Anne of Green Gables which sums up my attitude to the changing weather: “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” September always feels to me like it begins when I start to see kids in school uniform, which here in Scotland is mid-August, so by the last week of September I was ready to flip the calendar page and move on! When I get to put on my boots and knitwear I really feel like me (knitwear for autumn? Groundbreaking).

Hope you’re all staying as safe and well as you can, and I’ll speak to you soon!

Lily

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