Hi Dear Reader, happy Thursday!

I’m a day late this week as I’ve been working through the day and into the evenings and had personal life stuff going on too, so not had any chance to sit down and write.

But I’m here now, and so is pumpkin season, isn’t it?!

Well and truly. Don’t I fucking know it. Everywhere I look – pumpkins and halloween stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing everybody loving pumpkin season, I just don’t love it myself. It’s some of my friends’ fave times of year, so in the words of Alexis Rose – LOVE THAT FOR THEM. But yes, unfortunately, I’m a big massive autumn grinch who honestly, couldn’t be more apathetic about the season. I try and I try every year, but with the earlier introduction of halloween decorations and the sight of pumpkins, it’s becoming harder to get on board. Roll on winter lol THAT’S MY SEASON (and Summer, and then Spring because I LOVE those too). I do LOVE seeing red leaves on trees in Autumn, so I guess it’s not all bad!

Anyway, I hope you’re having a good week wherever you are in the world! I’m happy to be bringing you your weekly download of fun things I’ve been watching, reading and listening to this week (or the last month as I’m still sharing a few bits from Spain!)

---

Reading

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

I read this book because I had heard good things about it and I kept seeing it pop up in my kindle store recommendations. I was fascinated by the tagline:

One life changing decision: your husband or your one true love?

I started to think about it because surely your husband is your one true love? But what if they’re not? And well, I guess my curiosity was piqued enough to buy the book, and I was really glad I did.

I devoured this in Spain, I think it may have been a long-ish book (I never know how thick they are when they’re on my Kindle) but it did take me a little while to get through it. I really enjoyed the author’s writing style, the descriptions of the woods and lakes of where it was set in the USA, and generally just the way I felt we got a very in-depth view of all the characters and scenarios that played out throughout the book.

I really appreciate when authors go back and forth between present day and past in books so that we can really learn more about the characters’ personas, characteristics, why they are the way etc. The best case of that I’ve seen was in A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, that book has never really left me.

Anyway, it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read (I’m really struggling to find something that WOWs me lately!) but I would recommend it as I really enjoyed the story and how it challenged some of my core beliefs in life.

You can learn more about it here.

Watching

Ted Lasso

OH. MY. GOD.

Stop the press.

SERIOUSLY, stop what you’re doing, go and pay for a month of Apple TV, and WATCH THIS SHOW.

I would even PAY for you to watch it, it’s THAT good.

For years, I’ve been working with American clients, and they often ask me have I seen Ted Lasso/ what do I think of Ted Lasso/ Do I know I sound like someone from Ted Lasso?/ Is England really like it is in Ted Lasso?

TED LASSO TED LASSO TED LASSO. It’s all I’ve heard.

I have tried to watch it before, but couldn’t find anywhere to get hold of it. But lo and behold, we are still logged into our friend’s Apple TV account and I am very much still maximizing these benefits (and very likely to pay for a subscription soon even though I detest the lack of useability with Apple TV!) and I saw that it was on there and HAD to watch it.

From the very first episode, I was hooked. I bingewatched season 1 last weekend and cannot wait to keep watching later this weekend. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, hilarious, it is SO feel good, Ted Lasso is so precious that I am devastated he isn’t real, and honestly, the entire show is just a beautiful, feelgood, wholesome encounter.

It isn’t for everyone (James, naturally, doesn’t like it because he’s a mizzog and says it’s too American and the focus on football isn’t accurate) but as someone who has no idea about football, aside from a few dodgy linguistic nuances that don’t quite translate accurately (English people saying things like “parking lot” instead of “car park” and some other American terminology) I think it’s wonderful. It is just so happy and lovely and YOU SHOULD GO WATCH IT.

Listening

My Timehop recently reminded me how obsessed I was with this song when it came out a year ago, and then I just completely forgot about it! Mike Posner did the BEST hype promo for this song that I couldn’t WAIT for it to be released. But then not long after he disappeared from Insta, I guess to take care of his general wellbeing.

I absolutely adore Mike Posner and wish he’d come back to Instagram soon because he is such a beautiful soul and an absolute delight showing up in my feed. In the meantime, enjoy this great catchy song!

I’m Not Dead Yet – Mike Posner

Before You Go…

If you thought I was honestly going to get to the end of this post without a single mention of what’s going on in Israel and Palestine, you were MISTAKEN, dear reader. Also if you are overexposed/overstimulated/generally just OVER reading and hearing about the terrible atrocities, go now dear reader, and I’ll see you next week!

Israel and Palestine

But if you are sticking around, of COURSE I have a few things to say on this. I had been staying quiet on it, because like possibly many of you reading, I don’t and can’t possibly fully understand all the nuances of the last 75 years of this conflict. But what I can understand is what I see unfolding in front of me, and I do have an opinion on that.

I saw a post from Nadia Belkacemi that posed the question “have you ever looked back at a historical atrocity and wondered what you would have done at the time to help? Would you have spoken up or stayed silent?” I realised that as a usually vocal person I was staying silent and being untrue to myself for fear of not understanding/getting it wrong/general ignorance and backlash for said ignorance

But as I sit in my warm house with running water, electricity, and food, there isn’t much else I can do but be vocal (and donate to aid organisations). That isn’t to say that everybody should be posting on social media about this – quite the opposite. Just because people aren’t posting vehemently about this war doesn’t mean that they a) don’t care and b) aren’t doing things behind the scenes to help in some way. It’s the same with ANY world conflict or occurrence that takes over the news.

There is SO MUCH being said and shouted about it at the moment, and with it being such a historically convoluted issue and a lot of confrontation coming from both sides, a lot of people are afraid to say ANYTHING on the topic. Like many other political conflicts, people become fearful of saying anything and contributing to the noise when they don’t fully understand.

And I get it. We are VERY privileged to be able to stay quiet. We are VERY privileged to be able to switch off our phones when it all gets too much, and choose “not to take a side”. We are very privileged to not have to understand it all. Because it isn’t happening to us.

But it IS happening, and millions of innocent people are caught in this horrific mess. And big power countries like the fucking UK (of course – because WHAT ELSE would you expect?!) and America are not only taking a side, but clearly demonstrating whose side they’re on. The results of this are COLOSSAL.

Their public backing of Israel not only means that millions of innocent Palestinians are being abandoned and left for dead, but also that major social media platforms are now CENSORING and SILENCING people who are being seen to be showing support for Palestine. When two countries are at war, there are innocents on both sides. Yet according to the media, that isn’t the case in this war.

When there is a war going on, and other countries are weighing in to support one side whilst actively supporting the other in being prevented from receiving any aid and support, there’s a big fucking problem. Regardless of your opinion and whether you believe Palestine are to blame or not, what we are seeing right now is outrageous.

Palestine is not Hamas.

In the same way that Israel isn’t Netanyahu.

In the same way that we here in the UK aren’t that fucking bellend Rishi Sunak.

The decisions being made to bomb and murder millions of innocent people are NOT being made by normal, innocent people like you and me, yet THOSE are the ones being caught in this mess whilst the whole world is fed a narrative that they DESERVED it.

No ordinary, innocent civilian deserves war.

I don’t support Hamas. I don’t support any terrorist organisation. But I also don’t support Netanyahu either. And that is what this is down to. We are hearing Israel and Palestine but this is a war between two barbaric examples of militant leadership, NOT the millions of innocent people in both of those countries.

It is OBVIOUSLY NOT OK to blindside, kidnap and murder innocent people trying to enjoy a music festival (or obviously live their life in ANY way). But it is also NOT OK to demand millions of innocent people to leave their homes immediately “for their own safety,” before closing off their borders, cutting off medical supplies, food, water, electricity and anything else a human would need to survive and then bombing them anyway. How can people “get to safety” when you blow up all routes out of the city you’re going to bomb the shit out of? They can’t. And that is also murder.

And when you condone and support the murder of millions of innocent people and children because the media convince you it is “justified retaliation”, there’s a big fucking issue with you too. The entire situation is barbaric.

Anyway, that’s enough from me on the topic, I’ve said my piece. But before I go and in case you didn’t know, many charities that are trying to send aid into Palestine are now being censored on social media and it is becoming increasingly difficult to donate through these platforms. One of these is Medical Aid for Palestinians, you may discover on Insta that “donations aren’t currently available in your country” which is utter bullshit. Donations ARE available in your country (especially if you’re in the UK) and you can do so via this link.

And if you wish to donate to Israel (though these charities are NOT being censored, they are being heavily supported) you can do so via this link.

See you next week!