Spring is springing!
Welcome to this week’s roundup of three things I’ve been enjoying, and a short piece about something that’s on my mind. This week: what it is to be ‘ace’.
📕 The Summer Skies - Jenny Colgan. Another gorgeous Jenny Colgan novel, following her tried-and-true formula of a woman whose life suddenly starts to veer off the track she’d planned, and who wrestles it back onto a new track - which ends up being better for her - with the help of friends, family, and a new man who appears. This one is set on a Scottish island archipelago, around the operations of a small family-run airline. Wonderful. (Amazon - ad, affiliate link)
🎮 Mario Kart. Earlier this week I went out to an arcade bar, and we ended up in one of the ‘console booths’ they have downstairs, locked into a Mario Kart 64 tournament and not even noticing time passing. Friends, I am truly terrible at racing games, but it was so much fun! It’s a mark of how good this game is that even as our tech has improved, the fundamental mechanics of it have barely altered. It also made me remember playing Lego Racers when I was a kid - we didn’t have a game console but did have a PC.
☕️ Taking myself out for brunch. Somehow, I always forget that this is something I enjoy - but I’m writing this sitting at a window table in Boston Tea Party, having just had an incredible hot brunch sandwich with gorgeous hash browns and a wonderfully creamy (decaf!) flat white. (Paid subscribers, thank you!)
I have a strong belief that different places are best at different times of year. Edinburgh? That’s an autumn/winter city - she looks her best on misty autumn days, with the trees going golden and the pubs just beginning to light their fireplaces.
But Bristol? She comes alive in the summer.
On Friday this week, the temperature flirted with 20 degrees (that’s high-sixties for those of you in the US) for the first time this year, and I walked home from work the long way, past pubs whose outside tables were beginning to fill up with people who just looked happy to be outside again.
Bristol is a harbour city with a long maritime history (some of which, yes, is deeply problematic) and on a bright day, it feels like everyone is drawn down to the riverside. It’s true that some of that is my own bias - I am a water person (Hi, I’m Lily, I’m half-dolphin, nice to meet you), and that’s a huge part of why I moved here. So many people here have outdoorsy hobbies - cycling, hiking, running - and at this time of year it’s like everyone remembers why they enjoy doing them again.
Earlier this week, I went out to do a slow easy jog around the harbour, instead of on the treadmill, and it just put me in such a good mood. Outside time is good for you. Who knew?
Speak soon,
Lily
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