Day One of Writing Any Old Thing
Thanks for the inspo, Nina Stibbe and thanks for believing in me, Gary Nunn
I keep thinking I must write something on here and then not doing it. New subscribers (welcome!) with lovely sounding names keep appearing (thanks to
recommending me to his readers) and each time is a little poke in the arm. In a nice way. And then there are those of you who actually pay me money! (Sorry!!!!)I’ve got tonnes of drafts on here of half baked poems and posts about plays and books. I even sent a poem out on here a couple of weeks ago and then deleted the post. I’ve got past my fear by listening to the audiobook of Nina Stibbe’s latest, ‘Went to London, Took the Dog’ - now I feel OK about just writing any old thing in my head, like she does. Emma Leslie’s wonderful letters inspire me, too (Emma, this is part of your reply). So, here we go.
Thursday, 27th June
There was a slight fracas in the village this morning. I heard it as I was coming out of the graveyard behind my house (where there are quite a few graves where ‘and also his wife’ has been chiselled on at the bottom, as an afterthought, which made me think of Stephen Moffat on Radio 4 yesterday saying how his highly successful wife gave him the idea to write about how women get called co-producers and co-anchors in TV when they are doing the exact same job as their male counterparts, still, in his new show ‘Douglas in Cancelled’, which the Beeb turned down so is on ITV). It turns out someone has made an sign that says ‘NO DOGS’ and screwed into into the wall around the little triangle of grass and two benches and a man was saying it was ‘tantamount to grafitti’ as they’d created it themselves. (I’m not sure about the rules are about making your own signs in public spaces. I think legally it’s probably fine and it’s the duty of everyone else to just not to believe in the sign, but I guess this is a slippery slope and easier said than done. Lots of people do seem to make their own signs around here though.) I was thinking the other night that everyone reading ‘X’* tweets or comments on Instagram reels all the time without knowing who the people really are who’ve written them is a bit like just reading loads of ever-changing graffitti on a wall. It’s definitely closer to that than actually reading proper articles or books to educate yourself.
Most of the time I’m OK with the Instragram roulette reel bed-scrolling but the other day I scrolled onto a woman in a car with water rising up and not able to get out and I instantly felt sick and couldn’t breathe properly then. I didn’t know what to do (wished AL was with me) and quickly thought to download the Calm app. Just seeing the blue box and the word Calm already helped but then I had to sign up to a 7 day free trial before getting to watch the rainforest sounds and relaxation video, which then panicked me more because I have no money and don’t want the pressure of another free trial to forget to cancel. But I did it anyway and it helped - I listened to ‘drift away with gratitude’ and felt pleased with myself for having a working fridge and a mattress.
I haven’t paid much attention to Julian Assange but there’s someone in the village with lots of ‘free Julian Assange’ signs in his windows and today they’ve gone. I wonder if there was a big international zoom party for the cult of Assange fans earlier in the week. Apparantly the Wikipedia founder is annoyed that everyone thinks he’s connected to Wikileaks, which I did as well, to be honest.
I’ve just bought an aubergine in the shop and was pleased because the shop assistant called it ‘a beauty’ when I took it to the counter, which is exactly how I felt about it. It’s huge and shiny. It’s slightly made up for the fact that my Riverford box from last Friday has gone missing. No, scratch that, I’m still gutted about that. I had looked up radish and spinach receipes in preparation and got a creamy pasta dish lined up (you get the vegetables that will be coming in a list by email or on the app in advance). I’m going to look up aubergine in a minute. Not on instagram, a weird thing is happening to me on their lately - I feel sea sick watching the reels. Everything is so quick and maybe I’m sounding old but I’m now longing for long form cooking TV programmes again. Even Jamie Oliver was a bit quick - someone slow like Nigella is nicer. Actually now I think of it there was a woman called Barefoot Contessa that I used to like, she really took her time over everything. I wonder if she's still going. I didn’t used to cook when I watched her, but now I have my own kitchen (and there are no theatres around) so it’s happened by accident. I made this Peperonata and had to freeze half of it, it was really nice, I just made too much.
I think ‘The Bear’ also has a lot to answer for in terms of my resurgance in cooking. New series is out today! What brilliant television. The great thing as well is that it’s brought me back to REM, I was a huge fan twenty years ago and hadn’t played them much in recent years. The way ‘Strange Currencies’ is used as a leitmotif in the show is just marvellous, especially with Carm and Claire. It lead to some lovely conversations with friends on our Mixtape Whatsapp group about songs like ‘You Are the Everything’ on their ‘Green’ album - the sound of cicadas (how do you pronounce that word?), painted over with mandolin, then layered with Stipe’s vocals, blunt as a hammer: “the stars are the greatest thing you’ve ever seen and they’re there for you for you alone you are the everything”.
I’ve also been reading ‘Behind the Black Door’ by Sarah Brown, wondering about how the next WPM, Lady Victoria Starmer, must be feeling right now. It’s a bland read really but I’m oddly still interested as like finding out about the food at Checkers and when she wears a green beret from New Look (shock, horror!) and how she likes being sat next to Harvey Weinstein at dinner parties because he’s so charming (gross). And it’s mad how Sarah Brown says she had to tell her press officer what she was wearing single everyday. It’s all a bit Handmaid’s Tale. Overall, the Browns seem boring and nice (which is what I want from a Prime Minister, tbh).
Mum’s just rung, she’s painting the wall outside her house. It’s not exactly the same shade as next door, but close enough. Her new telly has arrived that she bought with the rebate from the electricity company. It’s the same as Uncle John’s, she likes the Freeview possibilities.
Big news, guess who is headlining the Holsworthy Carnival this year? The first band I ever saw live, East 17! This must mean I’m in my prime age-wise. ** I saw them aged 14 with my best friend Shelley, we had matching permed hair (we did a car boot sale to raise the 24 pounds it cost us). That was actually 28 years ago and it actually feels it.
Right, I have to go and buy tahini and pine nuts from Bude Health Food Shop, which will be a pleasant walk, then I can make Baba Ganoush. REM are coming with me.
* RDW said that the biggest communication platform being bought by Elon Musk and turned into a black box with a massive X on it is a very depressing sign of our times.
**Friends SY and NY live in Holsworthy, which is about 15 minutes drive away.
Love this Nat, so good ❤️ Nina Stibbe is great inspiration, love her writing. Love your writing. Love you! Observations + enthusiasms is a winning formula x
Loved reading this Nat. Please keep them coming :)
Also, I will be watching The Bear tonight and cannot wait! Enjoy! X