Three Things for Your Weekend

#5: August 9, 2024

Welcome to this week’s roundup of three things I’ve been enjoying!

• 📕 Head Over Heels* - Hannah Orenstein. (*ad - Amazon affiliate link) I love this romance set in the world of competitive gymnastics. The romance is between two coaches and the other plot lines involve a lot of grappling with some of the uglier power dynamics in the sport, with a hopeful and positive outcome. It’s set in a hypothetical 2020 with no pandemic and with the Tokyo Olympics happening as originally planned - and I first read it back in the winter of 2020-1 when I wasn’t sure if we’d ever go back to the ‘Olympic joy’ I felt in 2012. It was great to re-read it knowing that yes, we did.

• 🛁 Cool Baths. Summer has suddenly arrived, and all the smugness I had about living in a modern building where I didn’t need the heating on over winter has disappeared. Even before the heatwave arrived, my flat had been solidly above 25 degrees for a week, and when it got properly warm outside, the temperature kept rising. So after work, and a gentle workout, I ran a lukewarm bath full of eucaluptus-scented bath salts*, made a gin and tonic with plenty of ice, and propped up my iPad to watch the Olympic gymnastics while gradually bringing my body temperature down. Ideal.

• 🇦🇹 Vienna. This issue of the newsletter was meant to go out with a message saying ‘as this is going out, I’m getting ready to head to a concert I’ve been waiting over a year for.’ But as you all probably know, the concerts have been cancelled, because The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived wanted to kill Swifties as a symbol of his twisted ideology. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. But this whole thing has reminded me why Vienna is one of my very favourite places in the world… and has me asking myself again, why don’t I live here? There’s been everything from churches offering their sound systems and sanctuary as a space to be together and sing, to free ice-cream, museum entries, and a sense of coming-together. While I’ve been avoiding the big impromptu sing-alongs around the city (they just seem like a target for trouble), I’ve been chatting to other Swifties from all over the world, and making and trading bracelets with them. And you best believe I’m going all out at the next Swiftogeddon.

Noticed something a bit different? For the next couple of months I’m trying out separating my weekly recommendations out from the ‘thinkier’ piece that goes along with them. Let’s see how it goes - I’d love to hear any thoughts.

Last week’s longer newsletter: