Good Things #23

Good Things come to those who wait.

Jan 11, 2026

Hello friend!

I don’t have time to write this newsletter. Well that’s not true. I have loads of time. But instead of being creative and positive in the world, I have taken to scrolling through short clips, and adverts from Temu for things that seem incredible. Increasingly though, I get the feeling this is going to kill me, I just don’t know how.

So here we are. You are looking at your phone. Tut tut. But I have broken free of the scrolling-chain and produced rather than consumed.

grey metal chain in close up photography

The last edition of Good Things was #22 and (by chance not design) was posted on 22nd July 2022 (if you’re into numbers, you might enjoy this detail). I’ve also realised that the last time I wrote anything (besides a work email) coincided with me very shortly afterwards restarting my commitment to drinking lots of alcohol (whilst on my summer holiday) which had been preceded by 2 years of abstinence. Make of that what you will.

Currently I am on an unbroken sober stint - is it coincidence that I am able to write again? I don’t know. I don’t like to say.

Now, on to some Good Things!

Karcher Window Vac, but in the car.

You know in the morning when you have to defrost the car and what a drag that is? And then you take the kettle back into the house, get back into the car and start driving before realising the windscreen is wet on the inside too? And then you have to urgently wipe the windows with whatever you have (your clothes, hands etc), but you’ve already started driving so you have to decide if this is all bad enough to pull over or if you think you can sort everything out before you get to the motorway, which in my case is around 2 minutes? It’s a hair-raising start to every winter’s day.

Well, please allow me to save all of our lives. The Karcher Window Vac is a brilliant tool for the home and makes a lovely job of the windows, but if you keep it in the car you can hoover your windscreen during this dicey and icy morning moment.All fixed it in seconds.

What’s that? Why don’t I need my Karcher vac in the house for the wet windows? Aha! Well that’s because of my new dehumidifier.

What the actual F, indeed. Fed up of living like this through yet another soggy and mouldy-walled winter, I skeptically bought a a dehumidifier almost convinced I was throwing my money in the bin. I’ve been putting it on at night when the water-fairies seem to do their best work, and now? These windows are dry every morning and so are my walls and my clothes and pillows.

Yes, it does sound like a small car is running in the bedroom all night but I think that’s a small price to pay not to drown in my bed. The first few mornings I emptied out almost a whole tank of water. I was shooketh.

Also it’s not really that noisy, it’s fine.

Yellowstone, Netflix

I’m aware sometimes my TV recommendations are coming at you about 4 years late but if a show has reached me and broken through my forcefield, you know it’s got to be good, right? Kevin Costner looks the same as always which feels nice and reassuring, but in Yellowstone he’s more sculduggerous than I’ve seen him before. Everyone says it takes a couple of episodes of Yellowstone to get into it and everyone is correct, but it’s worth spending two hours complaining you can’t understand what they’re saying and that there are too many characters. Cowboys mumble and there are lots of them. You get used to it.

Mob Kitchen

I might have recommended Mob Kitchen’s videos in a previous newsletter? The mob are prolific on TikTok and Instagram. But in 2026 I’ve gone all the way and actually paid money for a subscription to the app. It’s 3000+ recipes, with clear ingredients there’s a chance you’ve already got, instructions, reviews, and a way of “adding ingredients to your shopping list” which is cool.

But crucially, unlike a recipe book where half of it is story time from people’s childhoods about when they first ever tried bread, and lots of stuff you’d never make, I think almost all of Mob Kitchen content delicious. I’m so sick of trying to decide what’s for dinner and cycling through the same 4 things, and this App is giving me a bit of inspiration. I’ve had recipe box subscriptions before but always cancelled deciding it was the recipes I wanted, and not individual bulbs of garlic and sachets of rice wine vinegar to be delivered. I’m quite capable of doing the shopping. I just don’t have the ideas.

Check out Mob Kitchen here.

Some things I’ve read lately on Substack which are good: