Hiya dear reader!
How are you?!
I don’t know about you but I feel like these last two weeks are FLYING!!!!!!!
I feel like I’ve blinked and we’re almost at the weekend again. That could be because I have a day off Friday so technically my last day of work for the week is tomorrow and it is almost the weekend again, or it could be that I’ve been having a lot of fun the last couple of weeks and time flies when you’re having fun!
Who knows?!
Anyway, got a little short and sweet one for you this week because as usual, I’m leaving this until last minute and I have a shit ton of stuff to do tonight!
Reading
this instagram post taken from matt haig – reasons to stay alive
I saw this recently and figured even though I’m not turning 40 for a little while yet, I – like everyone else – could benefit from the stuff on this list.
Matt Haig’s book Reasons to Stay Alive is on my ever-growing to-read list. The truth is I’ve done a shocking job this year of both reading and writing, and it’s a shame – especially because I wholeheartedly agree with number 6 on this list. But we are only a little over the halfway point of the year, so I have the other half to pull myself together! And this list below serves as a reminder that I need to read the full book.
(You may need to click through to the Instagram post to see the full lot!)
Watching
manifest
Netflix is doing my head in a bit lately. With the new pricing/blatant moneymaking/lack of sharing ability, and them playing silly buggers adding a series but only adding season 4 of it (read on!), I kinda want to boycott it and stop watching. But let’s face it, if I don’t line the pockets of the Netflix multi-billionaires, I’ll have to line the pockets of Jeff Bezos, and Amazon Prime TV is absolute GARBAGE. Why would I pay for a subscription and STILL have to pay for stuff to watch?!
No thank you. NOT TODAY you greedy old man.
So Netflix it is.
With being forced to stop sponging off my sister-in-law and having to buy our own subscription has come the creation of brand-new from-scratch Netflix accounts for us both, and with that, I get my own tailoring of the type of stuff I love to watch whilst James is away all week. IT’S AMAZING!!!!!
An entire account just for me filled with chick flicks, conspiracy theory documentaries and profound, thought-provoking, lifechanging films. WHAT COULD BE BETTER?!
Cue – Manifest!
I spotted this series a while back but it only had season 4 on there which I thought was pointless to watch. I struggle with grasping storylines at the best of times, I defo couldn’t handle going into a series at season 4! But then the weekend just gone I noticed that SEASON 1!!!!! Had been added. So I got started.
It’s very Lost-esque (my favourite TV show in the history of EVER!) so I have to say, I’m loving it.
It’s about a plane that vanishes off the face of the earth and then rocks back up 5 years later, in tact with everyone still on it. IT’S REALLY GREAT.
You can learn more about it here.
Listening
fred again..
I’m afraid it’s another Fred Again track this week! But this time it’s a more upbeat one. You’ll have probably already heard the “Courage, my soul” lyric as I believe it’s from a famous hymn. I really love the lyric, and I love it in this song.
I’ve basically had Fred on repeat for the last week because I’ve been SO UNBELIEVABLY excited that we managed to get tickets to see him on tour later this year. Rather than pay for a hotel/spends/the extortionate train costs for a train to London that will probably be cancelled anyway because, you know, THE ENTIRE UK TRAIN SITUATION, we’re off to Brussels for it instead! So not only do we get to see the rays of Sunshine Fred and Tony IN REAL LIFE, but we get a few days in one of my fave cities too. Result!
Before You Go…
I have experienced two really beautiful moments in the last week and I thought I’d share.
The first was the pure JOY that my beautiful new patio has given me thanks to the guys that created it. I watched them for the entire week last week, they worked SO hard, and they slowly created the most beautiful patio for us. It’s no lie that new-build gardens are – well – lacking – and having been so blessed in our last house with the world’s most beautiful garden, it’s been an adjustment over the last nearly a year to get used to what is basically a plain, overlooked square. But over the last few months we’ve started to make it nice. I mentioned how beautiful it is, how much joy it was already bringing me, and how clever and wonderful I thought they were. They were actually shocked when I asked if it fills them with pride to know how much joy they’re bringing to people’s lives through their work, as apparently not many people tell them?! I couldn’t believe it. These contractors are ARTISTS!
And speaking of joy through work, this brings me to my second beautiful moment. I saw a young girl – maybe 15 or so – at the hairdressers this morning getting her hair done for what I assume was her prom. She was sat behind me whilst I was having my colour done, and I was watching the other hairdresser do her hair in the mirror, silently admiring how beautiful and long her hair was. She didn’t speak the entire appointment, so the first time I heard her was when the hairdresser was done and took her hair out of rollers. She gasped, saying she couldn’t believe how beautiful she looked. Her mum then came in to collect her and also gasped at the sight of her. Her mum immediately teared up, and the young girl kept saying how pretty she felt and quietly thanking the hairdresser for making her look beautiful. It felt like there was something going on behind the scenes – as though she perhaps struggled with confidence – which made it all the more special. As they were leaving, the mum told the hairdresser “you have no idea how happy you’ve made her, and me. Thank you!” and honestly, I just thought the whole thing was absolutely wonderful to witness.
These everyday situations of people doing their jobs and bringing pure magic and joy to the lives of others. YA LOVE TO SEE IT.
Anyway, I guess the moral of these stories is if you’re paying somebody to do something for you, and it brings you joy, tell them! You never know the knock on effect it could have.
That’s all from me as I promised short and sweet and it got a bit long!
See you next week!
Reflect and Introspect 