What’s pulling me through

Small things that made the return to routine easier

I started this week with real ‘I’ve got this’ energy. Full. Nourished. Buoyed by family time, good food, seaside walks - that rare feeling of being properly topped up.

And then… the first week back in Jan energy did it’s thing.
The freezing temperatures. The darkness. The grind of being back at work. I love my job - truly - but the snap back into focus, deadlines, decision-making, and the realisation that you’re no longer watching films or lighting fires at 11am does take its toll.

So what’s pulling us through?

Well first up: get yourself to see Hamnet in the cinema.

I’m already obsessed with Jessie Buckley (ever since I saw her in Cabaret years ago) and Paul Mescal (long-standing Normal People fan), but the two of them together are deeply moving. Tender, raw, and completely absorbing.

The sets are beautiful - open expanses of trees and moss and Jessie’s charater making tinctures that feels both grounding and dreamlike. The child actors are quietly brilliant. And under the direction of Chloé Zhao, everything feels spacious and intimate at the same time.

I’ve already gone down the inevitable rabbit hole: set designer, costume designer (Paul wears blues and Jessie reds - chakra’s of each character…), music, interviews, everything. One of those works that sends you searching rather than satisfied.

I sobbed, obviously.
But it really did fill my cup.

Then, The Traitors, obviously.

My family are fully IN. Deeply invested. Particularly in Stephen - and his excellent dress sense. A bonding experience disguised as television.

I’ve also found my way back to podcasts, which always feels like a small act of self-repair. This Cultural Life never misses, but the Guillermo del Toro episode just out is especially fascinating - generous, curious, obsessed in the best way (his dad won the lottery, crazy).

I’ve continued easing myself back into podcasts — that familiar comfort of other people’s voices making the commute feel less grey.

Desert Island Discs with Kate Winslet gave me a huge amount of joy. That rare mix of completely down-to-earth and utterly brilliant. Proper actress energy.

I’ve also discovered a new French podcast, The Bold Way - Jo Ellison, editor of HTSI, talking through how she found her place in her career. Her early love of magazines, the pull of Sunday Times Style, the slow accumulation of taste and confidence - fascinating. Comforting, too, in that there is no straight line way.

Queued up for my commute next: Fashion Neurosis with Debbie Harry. I haven’t pressed play yet, but I already know it’ll hit.

And then… food.

Honestly, my saviour this week. There’s that moment — usually right about now — when the copious amounts of chocolate and cheese finally lose their appeal. When stuffing your face no longer quite hits in the way it did over Christmas. That’s when you know you’re ready for the stew, soup phase.

Christina Soteriou, in the Yotam Ottolenghi test kitchen, made a couple of completely knockout recipes. I happened to be there when she finished an incredible mushroom soup — rich, deep, silky — and I genuinely couldn’t believe it didn’t contain cream. It’s endlessly fascinating watching how she thinks. This lentil stew/soupy thing is next on my list to try at home. That test kitchen team have been coming up with the goods.

At home, my WFH lunches have been jars of Bold Bean Co — the smoky ones in particular — plus the slow, indulgent clearing of Christmas: leftover cinnamon bun cookies (our Yotam Ottolenghi best seller by far), the last slices of Christmas cake, endless cups of tea.

Very much still in winter mode.
Very much still hoping someone might gently wake me when spring arrives.

S x