I hope your day is rosy- things to cheer your New Year!
After a short-ish break due to work, watching Saltburn 59 times and being 90% Orange Quality Street... we're back!
Dare I ask: How was your Christmas? Are you okay? Can I call someone for you? If you’re reading this- you survived it no matter what happened, so 10/10, all the gold stars for you, even if the Christmas tree burnt down and your family called an exorcism for your grandma.
As December 1st rolled around I was fully ready to fast forward to 2024 wondering if we have AI robots ready to kill their programmers why we haven’t invented time travel. Or at least the 1.5x speed you can watch Tik-Tok videos on but for real life.
It’s not the commercialism I struggle with or the religious aspect (Jesus had great hair -totally get the worship, you do you babe). It’s the expectant happiness. ‘You can’t be sad it’s Christmas!!’ The idea that for a few days a year we’re all supposed to be delighted. Wandering around like manic cheshire cats. But people’s lives don’t stop for one day a year, no matter how much the local Tesco express being closed might try to inflict such things. Grief, sadness, difficult relationships still permeate our existence and having to deny it only makes it worse. We’ve all been Emma Thompson crying secretly in the bedroom in Love Actually instead of going downstairs and giving Alan Rickman the royal bollocking he deserved. It’s human to have lots of feelings all at once and Christmas would be easier for so many if we welcomed them in and allowed them to be with us.
Maybe in 2024, the greatest gift we can give each other is our authenticity?
Anyway on that merry thought, here are some delightful moments to kick off your January. As I write this it’s snowing in London, so whilst the city grounds to a halt at a tiny layer of icing sugar on the pavements, I hope these make you smile:
If a hermit crab finds a bigger shell it’ll see if it can fit and if the shell is too big it’ll wait by the shell for hours as other crabs come up to it and try it on. As they realise it’s too big for them as well, they’ll form a queue from biggest crab to smallest crab and wait for the crab who is the perfect size and then they all exchange shells in sequence so they each get a new home. I can’t handle that level of kindness- we should all be more hermit crab.
This iconic Nanna, telling it as it is, THIS IS THE VIBE WE’RE GOING FOR IN 2024 LADS:
Keeping with Sea Life:Have you heard of NEIL THE SEAL? He has stolen my heart. And probably a lot of other things too cos Neil is carnage.
CAT OF THE WEEK: Here to bless your washing with good luck and cat hair. (Cat owners- do you wonder how much cat hair you’ve inhaled each year? I’m surprised I’ve still got working lungs)
I really love this video from Eliza Day about our need to have an opinion, immediately on everything and the importance of deep conversations:
Something to take with you: Post Christmas there’s always the annual, ate too much/must diet/body dysmorphia doing the rounds (Been there, doing that, got all the T-shirts). Last week I saw this really lovely quote from Ashlee Bennett, a therapist who said: Remember that the tummy you’re trying to shrink and flatten contains life sustaining organs inside of it. They need space to exist and function and other layers to protect them. Your tummy is actually doing a really great job. We need to try self love again this year, and again, and again- until we finally get there!
My new years resolution is to deliver this newsletter every Monday, and I’m *cough* so good at keeping them…
Until then, have a rosy day x
Hope your 2024 is stellar! I laughed hard at your every Monday plan!😹😹😹 Also has the audio version been discarded?
Sending a huge dollop of good vibez your way. Happy belated new year & hope 2024 is a Rosy one for ya 🌹