Hey! I’ve been well. Last week felt like a bit of a busy week, but I found time to catch up with two of my friends, Pat and Geoff.

Pat has been my friend since we worked together from 2016 for a couple of years. If you have been following my blog for some time, you’ll know he did a couple of my Fashion Friday posts in the past. He has since gone on to work for himself, spent a lot of time travelling and doing work, overall calling it one of the best decisions he’s made.

Geoff is my mate whom I do our Toast & Roast podcast with, and the funny thing is that we hadn’t seen each other in a couple of years due to the pandemic and lockdowns. We started the podcast remotely, over video calls, and stitched our audio clips together for the pod! 🥲

I had sort of wanted August to be a month I catch up with a whole bunch of people, but that hasn’t been too realistic because when I tried this back in 2016, we didn’t have COVID and certainly weren’t affected by it. I totally get that some people are just not feeling as strong when it comes to socialising, even though they may not have struggled with it before, and some people are just finding it harder than ever.

I’ve continued to read and listen to some books and audiobooks. I’ve recently finished The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates, which was an eye-opening and very humble and honest read. I have to admit that I was triggered by the talk of family planning, but once I got through it, it was a worthwhile read. I’m listening to The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson at the moment, and although I don’t mind his voice necessarily, I am finding his narration of the book to be a bit boring. I have been able to consume it better if I speed up the audio. It’s been an interesting book so far, and all the information is quite easily digestible.

On the weekend Nick and I saw Arlo Parks. I’d probably describe her music as R&B, a little bit jazzy, and a little bit folky at the same time. The sort of chilled out music you might listen to when you don’t particularly feel like listening to anything too intense, or when you are out for a walk or doing something pretty ordinary. I actually found out about Arlo Parks from my friend Chris – we have similar tastes in music. Arlo Parks is not the kind of artist I would immediately listen to, but I can’t really go past a recommendation. 😊 Her voice is so beautiful. She was so energetic during her performance and you could tell that she really loved to entertain. Some of the highlights were when she dedicated the song Eugene to “all the bisexuals out there”; when she sang Softly during the encore and the audience jumped up and down while singing (I didn’t expect that live performance energy for that song, honestly!); and the audience shouting “Caroline, I swear to god I tried” during the chorus of Caroline.

One of my favourite but more mellow songs by Arlo Parks is Black Dog — the most honest, emotional song about depression that I have ever heard. Truly a wonderful piece lyrically, and musically. A love note to everyone to tell you that if you are struggling, you are not alone.