386: Doctor Feelgood prescribes…

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been catching up with the excellent Ted Lasso on Apple TV, starring the fabulous Hannah Waddingham and Jason Sudeikis. It’s about a football club and the people in it – an underdog comedy, really, as they’re battling relegation, a string of draws, a diverse team who aren’t playing nicely together.

The title character is a fish out of water, brought from America to make sure the club goes under in an act of revenge by Hannah Waddingham against her ex husband, played delightfully sleazily by the much missed Anthony Stewart Head. Of course it doesn’t work, despite the entire fanbase of the club loathing Lasso, who knows less than nothing about football. He’s a Ned Flanders type who really shouldn’t be as charming as he is. His sidekick is a taciturn man with a fatal attraction to a woman who is quite bonkers. Brett Goldstein growls as Roy Kent, team captain past his glory days but not quite able to give up the beautiful game.

Grrr. Roy Kent, Coach Beard, Ted Lasso (Apple TV)

It’s predictable – yes, they’ll be relegated but that’s OK, there’s always another season. There’s a divorce (Lasso is giving his wife 5000 miles of space). There’s a love story and a kitman with an eye for tactics. There’s a Christmas episode with snow. It’s filmed in Richmond so looks posh and pretty. Nothing unexpected but beautifully written and every single episode leaves you feeling hopeful and happy.

It’s exactly the TV we need right now. Watch it.

Things making me happy this week

Family Wednesdays at work. So much fun.
Deeney’s specialty toastie – the Macbeth – Haggis, cheese and onions. MMMM.
Pizza with the kids on Tuesday.
Thing 1 taking up crochet again.
Progress on my shawl.
An evening with some of my girlfriends on Friday.
A Saturday swim with Rachel.
The return of bearable temperatures and a few drops of water falling from the sky.

That’s it from me – a quiet week! No big thoughts….

What I’ve been reading:

A Court of Mist and Fury – Sarah J Maas (Audible)

The Secret Keeper – Kate Morton

A lot of absolute rubbish by various Americans. No thinking required.

385: the burning issue

There’s a lot of fires going on at the moment, thanks to a combination of the insanely hot, dry weather and – well – idiots. We were in a delightful pub up Caerphilly mountain on Friday night when the alerts started to roll in on people’s phones, shattering the relative quiet of happy diners with shrill beeps as the various networks rolled them out. Once we’d all worked out what was going on it became a shared moment of ‘oh ho, there we go again’. For the avoidance of doubt, ours arrived in Welsh and English at the same time.

This is what the live wildfire map of the area looks like at my time of writing:

That’s a lot of fires, gang. We’re just outside Caerphilly and the air is thick with a smoky haze generated by the many fires around us. Four teenage boys were arrested on suspicion of arson quite locally yesterday, accused of starting several fires in the area. The landscape is dry, dry, dry and – as the current prime minister (are we still on Andy Burnham? I forget…) would have it – is a tinderbox.

So, naturally, the news today was dominated by people complaining about the alerts – were they necessary? Why were they in Welsh first when not everyone speaks Welsh? Why didn’t they go as far as telling people about the danger of broken glass? (admittedly this one was an outlier on the outrage scale).

Why was this important enough to use the national alert system, despite the fact that it had been requested by the severely overworked emergency services, who are already being supplemented by the military in some areas because they are swamped. Houses have been burned. Swathes of the countryside have been razed. People have been made homeless. We are low on water, which is pretty damned important for putting the fires out.

Many people are already looking at the landscape and thinking how dry it is, and how barbecues might be a bit unwise. Others might think, as a result of the alert, that maybe they won’t have that teeny firework display tonight even if it is little Chardonnay’s first birthday because, you know, fire.

Others – like the absolute bloody idiot we were driving behind today – are still flicking their fag ends out of the truck window. Given their business phone number painted on the side was a mobile, I assume they received the alert last night like everyone else.

And that, my friends, is why we needed the warning.

Things making me happy this week:

Watching the eclipse with Miriam and the kids as mine weren’t interested. We are not very good with colanders.

97 people of various sizes attending our family activities on Wednesday despite the heat – this week we read Rod Campbell’s Dear Zoo and made up their own prospective pets to send back. The snail who was too slimy, the penguin who was too slippery and the hedgehog who was too spiky were my favourites. Wednesdays are my favourite days
Ricky Gervais’s After Life which I watched in full this week. I’m not a fan of the man but this is amazing.
Starting the shawl I decided I needed to make last week

We’re also looking forward to a couple of slightly cooler days, if not to the rain we so desperately need. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to shake my fist at the clouds and do a rain dance.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Modern Fairies – Clare Pollard

The Witch’s Stone – Kirsty Ferry

Curious Physiologies – Jay Neill

Made in Scotland – Billy Connolly

A Court of Wings and Ruin – Sarah J. Maas (Audible)

384: nomad

Regular readers (hellooo!) will recall that earlier this year I made the decision to end my relationship with the father of the Things. 22 years together meant that there’s a lot to untangle and that this would happen slowly – affordable accommodation is in short supply these days, and even more so outside London. We’re amicable, at least, and still working on the new world order with the kids as my priority. It’s not easy though.

I’m too old to consider a room in a shared house, and wherever I go there needs to be space for my small (ha!) people. I’m filling in time at the moment with a lot of housesitting while people are away on their holidays or staying up a mountain in Wales for a few days every month.

This does mean that some nights when I’m home I sleep on a blow up bed in the front room, or if A is away at his girlfriend’s I get the bed. For the last week I’ve been over at Miriam’s dog-sitting which is close enough to come home for dinner which has been good. A brought his girlfriend home for dinner a couple of evenings this week and while I was welcome to join them that just felt a bit…weird.

Since Covid I’ve been hot-desking at work as nowhere these days has enough space for people to have their ‘own’ desk like in the the old days, and I find this stressful enough – I like to be able to arrange my things in my own way, to leave my tasks for the next day ready to pick up when I get in, to have photos and things that make a space feel homey as – after all – we still spend a lot of time in our offices. There have been studies that show hot desking creates added stress at work – not knowing where you’ll be able to sit, loss of familiarity in the workplace, sensory overload if you’re near the window/door/radiator, lack of control of your environment. I usually get in very early to work so can choose where to sit, but right now my whole life feels like I’m hot-desking, with all that goes with it. Of course hotdesking can also help you get to know new people in your organisation – but we’re a tiny organisation and the people I don’t know well don’t use the offsite office.

In an ideal world I’d have a set working pattern of three consecutive office days and could work around that in terms of lodging somewhere more affordable but the sector I’m in doesn’t really lend itself to that – I do work the odd weekend and love interacting with the public on those days. So, the solution isn’t immediate but I’m working on it…until then I’ll just make like the Littlest Hobo….

Things making me happy this week:

Reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and making wiggly caterpillars in the Little Owls session this week
Dinner with Amanda at Flat Iron on Wednesday, followed by a walk round Granary Square as we ate our ice creams
Random sunflower in the borage field

Catch-up with Miriam and Roy on their return from Scotland, including reducing their smaller daughter to hysteria with our rendition of Garth doing his Foxy Lady dance
Stacking up all the mini guinea pigs. It’s the little things…I think I want to make a shawl now though
International Cat Day – insta filled with cats

What I’ve been reading:

The Rainshadow Orphans – Naomi Ishiguro

The Woman in the Seal Skin – Lauren Keegan

A Court of Mist and Fury/A Court of Wings and Ruin – Sarah J. Maas (Audible)

383: weather continues…

…hot. Weather continues hot, with all that entails: men thinking it’s appropriate to go shirtless on the Underground, for example. For the avoidance of doubt, it isn’t, and no one wants to see those tattoos. The annual competition for the hottest underground line. Co-ops all over the country decorated with ‘this fridge is broken’ signs. Airconditioning units sold out. Dust and pollution replacing pollen in the noses of everyone in the city. The daily checking of BBC Weather (other apps are available) chasing the rain which is always just a few more days away. Online articles with top tips on how to beat the heat, at varying costs depending on which paper is currently clickbaiting you.

So, in the spirit of the season, here are my top tips for not going completely mad in the ongoing heatwave:

Lucozade Ice Kick on the train to hydrate. Two for £3 in the co-op at Farringdon (their fridges are working) bought just before you get on the train
Keep a stash of water bottles in your freezer. Not to drink, but to wrap in tea towels and take to bed at night.
Calippos. At least one a day, orange for preference but strawberry is nice too.
Carry an old fashioned fan and while away your horrible journey imagining you’re in Bridgerton. These are apparently very big on the fashion show front rows at the moment. This may be the only time I’ve been ahead of the trend, as I’ve had them in my handbag for years
Water sprays and an electric fan at night. Spray yourself, not the fan. This is important.
Consider alternative routes home if the tube is rammed. Think of it as an adventure. The overground lines are airconditioned.
Think seriously about moving to a polar region.
Cool showers before bed, but not cold.
Soak a tea towel in cold water and drape it round your neck (or over your entire body, but you’d need a bigger towel) and lie in a dark room. Science, apparently. Evaporation. Whatever.
Try not to touch a single other person with any part of your body.
Glare intensely at anyone who suggests holding meetings outside.
Listen to summer music and put ice in everything

Good luck!

Things making me happy this week

Crocheting ridiculous things – floppy cats and guinea pigs in varying sizes. Chenille yarn is so squishy.

Finally getting to deliver the Little Owls storytime at work – The Tiger Who Came to Tea this week – and planning next week’s activity
Walking through the fields with a very well-behaved Dobby, who didn’t bark at anything for a change
Not the local bus services
A solo mooch round Brentwood on Monday, trawling the charity shops
Helping Thing 2 apply for apprenticeships
Rewatching The Commitments and introducing Thing 2 to this gem, after the sad loss of Glen Hansard this week (and Sam Neill and Bill Oddie in July as well – enough, 2026, enough!). Go and watch Once if you haven’t seen it again…

What I’ve been reading

Everything Will Swallow You – Tom Cox

The Rainshadow Orphans – Naomi Ishiguro

The Woman in the Seal Skin – Lauren Keegan

A Court of Mist and Fury – Sarah J. Maas (Audible)