Dear Friends,
I hope you’ve had a good week.
Covid finally caught up with me so I’ve spent the week indoors and mostly celebrating good things like: 1. Paracetamol 2. Ibuprofen and 3. Tissues.
As I press my face against the window and look forward to going out again, these are some good things I’ve collected whilst in captivity:
Musings: It was all leading to this
It feels strange to finally have Covid, after so much worrying about it. For two years, I wore a mask in shops and avoided crowds, cancelled parties and didn’t go to things I wanted to go to, all in an attempt to swerve the virus, which I did successfully for two whole years. I was almost the overall winner! One of the last people I knew to have been unaffected.
And then, last Sunday, my daughter tested positive and I spent two days at home with her, cuddling her, sleeping with her in her bed, letting Omicron marinade between us until eventually seeing those two lines on the LFT felt inevitable.
The thing I’ve been most worried about has been that, if I got Covid and it floored me, how would I keep going? Doing the house, keeping the children alive, how would I do my work? What if I was unable to get out of bed or hold up my own head? Who would…do everything?
And so this week, the first “good thing” on my list is that I’ve been able to carry on. It’s not been pretty, but we’re alive and everything that needed to get done, is done.
And for that I give thanks to medicine.
Books: Small Pleasures by Claire Chambers
Small Pleasures feels like a classic.
The synopsis says: “1957, south-east suburbs of London. Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and — on the brink of forty — living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape.”
And, as a divorced feature writer on a local paper, on the brink of 40 myself, I bought it and I could not put it down.
It’s a love story which totally draws you in - reminded me a bit of Brief Encounter.
My only complaint is that “Jean” is described as a fully-middle aged, washed up spinster with stockings, and not the sexy kind. And I’m not middle aged yet…am I?
I hear Small Pleasures is just 99p on Kindle, so get on it.
Treasure from the internet: Bill Bailey reworks The Match of the Day theme tune
I enjoyed this.
That is all.
TV: Janet Jackson., Sky Documentaries
This four-part documentary has been 5 years in the making, and so I was expecting to see something I’d not seen before. I love Janet Jackson. I’m a fan of her music. And I love a good Sky Documentary too, so this felt like a perfect thing to see me through four evenings of Covid-week.
It’s on the list because essentially it is a good thing. But I do have comments.
First of all, in five years they’ve only managed to do three different interviews with Janet, and one of them is in the back of a car.
Secondly, this was billed as Janet’s big chance to make her own documentary, having lived her life (she says) in the long shadow cast by her famous brothers. She uses the plural of “brother” a lot as she laments this, but I note she’s co-produced the documentary together with her brother Randy. She ain’t lived her life in the shadow of Randy Jackson has she?
Anyway, for someone whose life centres around trying to shake off the “Jackson” thing, she dedicates a great deal of the documentary to talking about it. There’s not much of her music in the documentary either.
But what it lacks in music, and substance, it makes up for in giving us the opportunity to just stare at Janet’s face, which I’ve always found quite mesmerising, in its beauty and also in its likeness to a younger and less…well, y’know… Michael.
Janet Jackson is on Sky Documentaries.
Podcast: Diary of a CEO: Steven Bartlett talks to Michael Acton-Smith the founder of Calm
This week’s episode of The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett is a chat with Michael Acton-Smith, the guy behind the mindfulness and sleep App, Calm.
And honestly, no one could sound less calm than Michael Acton-Smith.
He sounds very nice and talks very interestingly about how he’s founded a string of businesses; his highs, lows, pitfalls, successes and regrets. But he sounds absolutely wired.
It’s just a theory, but I find Steven Bartlett quite terrifying and Michael sounds terrified of him.
And to be fair, no amount of listening to the Calm App would settle my nerves if I was invited to chat to Steven Bartlett. He sounds like he’s telling you off. He has such a stern way about him. Which maybe you like? I don’t know…
Anyway, I enjoyed listening to this because it’s interesting, but also because it’s two highly stressed businessmen who both need to calm down, talking to each other about the business of being “Calm”.
Top tip: If you press the button on your Sky box it makes your remote beep.
Lastly, and this is only relevant to you if you have Sky TV I’m afraid, and if you do, then you probably know this already, but in my Covid-prison, this is an absolute revelation.
In my house, we constantly lose the TV remote but we’ve discovered, if you press the button on the Sky box, the remote beeps. Like a little S.O.S signal and there it will be under the sofa.
I know!
OK, that’s it.
Thank you for reading what I’ve managed to tear from my Covid-addled brain while my children climbed across my head.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s “Good Things” newsletter and if you have, please like, share and leave a comment.
It’s lovely to read them when you do.
You can find me on Twitter @emilyincam.
Have a great week and see you next Friday!
Emily xx
As always a really good and interesting read . I hope you get well soon with no lasting symptoms.
Always a good read, I’m impressed you’ve written this with Covid too! Thanks for Small pleasures recommendation, I’ve downloaded it too 😊