Tuesday Ten

Ten little joys of the festive period

There have been so many lovely little things about this Christmas holiday, I am spoilt for choice, really. 

1. I started with a haircut. No picture, because the weather ruined the blowdry before I even got to the tube, but it looked fabulous. 

2. Secret Maps exhibit at the British Library. I expected this to be heavy on the 20th century and was pleasantly surprised by how many early modern maps there were to scrutinise. I particularly liked the one setting out the Canadian border after the American Revolution, that was apparently hidden by Britain in a later border dispute because it support an American claim. Classic. Love the idea that maps could just be hidden in a cupboard or something. 

3. Dinner with very long-term friend Richard, who I hadn't seen since 2019. He's a dad now. So weird. Love it. 

4. A stay at the NYX hotel in Holborn, with a visit to their spa. They gave me sweets on check in, amazing. I think I had a short stay booked here in April 2020 that I had to cancel: I remember the pool, which seems to have some sort of glass portion to the floor so you can see what's underneath it, whatever that is. I didn't have my glasses on, obvs. Also in London: a wander around Liberty (Christmas heaven) and then Fortnum and Mason (Christmas hell, solely due to the 30 million people all doing the same thing).

5. Dinner with Saff and Kate, enjoying a Jamaican feast, as in days of yore. 

6. I finished the Christmas jumper! Pictured here on its way to a carol concert, when it was not finished (I had not embroidered the berries across the back) but I completed it during a work meeting on the 22nd, perfect timing. 

7. A little blue Tiffany box of joy from Mr Z, who managed to buy me something I love that I didn't even know I wanted. I ordered him a much less indulgent gift and it hasn't even arrived yet, eek. 

8. Boxing Day walk with Mother Hand. We played Pooh sticks and fussed other people's dogs. 

9. A number of visits to the newish community sauna in Bristol that my knitting group friend Jess told me about. It's quite rustic but it does what it needs to. I haven't braved the 5 degree cold plunge yet...maybe tomorrow. 

10. A trip to hot yoga. I hadn't been since 2021; when I downloaded the app to book the sauna and it told me I already had a login, I realised it was the same app I used to book the hot yoga before, so decided to let fate guide me back. I picked a class with an instructor I used to see at bikram, who remembered me, which was nice. I don't mind doing yoga in a heated tent but I really do think I sweated more than anyone else and their showers seemed to be, once again, out of order. I remembered that that is why I didn't go back in 2021, when the showers were off-limits due to covid. I did not appreciate having to put a woolly jumper onto my clammy self. I want to go back but will need to make better wardrobe plans. 

Bonus: I've managed almost a whole week of 8+ hours sleep. Mostly 9+ hours, truth be told. I have completely stopped waking up at 6am. I am partly attributing this to the new Christmas PJs and new Christmas bedding (Christmas hit this house hard this year). Next week is going to be B R U T A L but I have enjoyed this week. 

2025 Round Up: Reads

It has not been a good year for reading! My poor brain. She has been so overwhelmed. There have been any number of academic articles pertaining to assessment sprinkled throughout the year, so my downtime (that's what I call my daily commute) has been full of music and radio rather than audioobooks. Audible probably think I've died. 

Fiction:

Amor Towles - Gentleman of Moscow. A hangover from 2024, I did enjoy this so much and it had an ending that I found satisfactory, when that might not have been the case. 

Michiko Aoyama - What You are Looking for is in the Library. A secret Santa gift. Translated from Japanese and with a crafty theme (needle-felting) - a collection of loosely connected stories. Not something I would ever have chosen but it was a great January read. 

KJ Maitland - Rivers of Treason; Plague of Serpents. The last two in the quartet. I smashed through the first one really quickly but the final one took some time and, if I'm honest, it just wasn't very good. I loved the first of these, which was set in Bristol, but these felt a lot more hurriedly written. 

Angela Slatter - All the Murmuring Bones. Not what I was expecting at all. I don't know how I came across this book but I enjoyed it a lot - the idea of mer people as a menacing threat was compelling. 

Kathryn Stockett - The Help. I have watched this film many times. Each time I watch it now I can spot the gaps where they clearly cut scenes (or important story bits) for time and so I thought I'd read it and see if I'd correctly filled the gaps. Mostly, yes. Emma Stone was not tall enough for that role though (but I love Emma Stone so I will overlook it). 

Yaa Gyasi - Homegoing. Overlapping stories of descendants of west African people caught up in slavery. This came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. The stand-out moment in the book for me (without trying to spoilt it) was the mum yelling at her son that she hadn't dragged them out of slavery for him to make such bad choices - it has stayed with me. 

Bonnie Garmus - Lessons in Chemistry. This might be my winner of the year. It is very light but exceptionally humorous, I lol'd a lot, much to Zoe's bemusement. I like the occasional scenes through the eyes of the dog. 

Maggie O'Farrell - The Marriage Portrait. The language in this was sumptuous. I'm impressed that a whole novel grew out of one line in a poem about a portrait. I haven't read Hamnet and probably won't, since it's been adapted now and I will watch that, but this encourages me to - she writes so beautifully. I still think about the interaction with the tiger. 

Kiran Millwood Hargrave - The Mercies. I like anything set in Scandinavia, particularly in the winter months because dark and stormy is such a vibe, particularly on a summer holiday. I should probably have read it BEFORE I went to Norway but, meh. 

Gabrielle Zevin - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. This had a strong 'A Little Life' vibe for me, possibly because it is human relationships followed over a number of decades; that meant that I fully anticipated one of the big twisty moments in the book. But it didn't spoil it. I really enjoyed the nostalgia vibe of this - gaming and early internet in the 90s. I was on the edge of that culture. 

Malcolm Saville - Lone Pine Five. Mother Hand returned this to me in the summer. I don't remember it from my childhood but I had written my name in it so...

This had a very strong Famous Five vibe but those 1940s gender stereotypes were very strong. It also finished quite abruptly. But it was a good palate cleanser at the end of the summer.

Toni Morrison - Beloved. Put it off in the summer because everyone talks about how dark it is; I'm still only 60% of the way through. It's good but not gripping me. 

Non-fiction:

Silvia Federici - Caliban and the Witch. Such an interesting book! I haven't finished it yet but I crashed through half of the audiobook on my journey to and from Wonderwool in April and it gave me such a useful insight into medieval life. The gist (as far as I can work out) is that the subjugation of women happened as a result of the rise of capitalism, rather than religion. Federici also highlighted that the best time to be a peasant in Europe was the end of the middle ages, when European peasants ate an average of 100kg of meat a year - this must outstrip the meat consumption of the poorest in Europe today by some margin, even with factory farming. 

Honestly - fascinating. Cannot wait to have more brain power so I can listen to the rest. 

Sarah Wynn-Williams - Careless People. Not at all surprising, none of it. I'm amazed Facebook is bothering to sue her for defamation, isn't this just a description of how all the super-rich behave to protect their wealth? As if they care what anybody thinks of them, I hardly think they're weeping into their enormous piles of cash. 

It was pretty grim to hear the algorithm that serves teen girls beauty ads just after they delete a selfie laid bare, though. And possibly more horrifying that the top brass didn't seem aware that this was happening. 

I was also reminded of an article I read back in 2016, that I haven't been able to find in recent years. Tim Harford retweeted it and I can find the original tweet in my Twitter archive but it's a shortlink that has since expired. Anyway - it was somebody theorising that Big Tech wanted a Trump win, even though they purported not to, because censorship and low taxes are in their best interests. It was a very interesting read. Almost ten years on, in this barren landscape that used to be a thriving internet community, I feel it.