Okay, not only have The Offcuts come back when I said they wouldn’t, I’ve been enjoyed the resurgence so much that I’ve added in a brand new section - Blast From The Past. I am perpetually nostalgic. Often for an emotion, a feeling or something imagined I haven’t even experienced. I love remembering things I’d once forgotten, or reminiscing over things we’ve collectively left behind. I have a long list already of things to include for this and I hope your memory is jogged by at least a few of them too. Tell me if you share similar memories as well!
This week I finished What You Are Looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. Another Japanese translation to add to my list. It’s very similar to Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. A heartwarming novel about the power a book might have to change your fate or get you to view your predicament differently told through the stories of 5 people. Here are a few other things I read this week that piqued my interest.
Pick me up - “hetero-normative fetish fantasy” of wanting to be picked up by a man
Dating when you’re prone to fantasy can be a tricky business - daydreaming and imagining lovers who don’t actually exist
I don’t regret a second of my nine-month affair - unsure what to say about this so just read it
Why don’t straight men read novels? - the cult of productivity and the ‘frivolity’ associated with reading for pleasure
Perhaps the one good thing about summer ending is the number of mystery-crime-thriller-drama TV shows about to hit our screens. Summer is not a time for TV and with good reason. As a lover of mystery-crime-thriller-drama TV shows I’ve got a few I’m excited for, including Joan on ITV starring Sophie Turner and The Perfect Couple on Netflix starring Nicole Kidman.
I miss the individuality we used to be able to express with our choice of mobile phone. The Nokia ringtone will always remind me of my Dad. His work phone would ring long into the evenings after he returned home when I was a child. We used to have phones in all different shapes and styles. Flip phones, slide-up phones and even that one that rotated to the side and looked like clothes tags. A phone for every personality. Sony Ericsson for the musicians, Blackberry for the social butterflies. We could buy phone charms and get ripped off texting special numbers for ringtones and wallpaper backgrounds. Smartphones have stolen our attention spans as well as our identities.
I bought a new sunset lamp for my bedroom. My old one stopped working, I actually did try to fix it but my limited abilities could not extend to figuring out what was wrong in the first place. My old one has been sat there on my bedside table, forlorn. I missed the charm and enchantment it brought to my bedtime, tucked up under the covers reading beneath a soft orange glow.
PinkNews’ CEO Benjamin Cohen was heard refusing to campaign on Trans issues as it’s “incredibly contentious” in leaked audio recordings. As a leading LGBTQ+ media company in the UK, this is shocking. Despite seeing numerous posts and stories on Instagram, it’s been hard to find any mainstream reporting on this. However, the recording and other damning accusations can be found on an X account called PinkNewsWhistleblowers.
I little bit of tough love this week. Not too tough though. Just right. Goldilocks love. If it’s not working for you, let it go. Don’t waste your time on it. Treat your time like the invaluable, finite resource that it is. Prioritise what’s important to you and defend it against everything else.
