Hi ! Welcome back. Sorry that this week’s newsletter is late! On the plus side…thanks to all those who emailed to ask where it was…good to know some people read it and miss it 😃. This week I am thinking and writing about good times, stories, scams, and nudists. - Eve D.❣️

Week in review…

The weeks are non-eventful and monotonous! But also, they fly by so fast, that it’s only when I get to Friday night and start writing this newsletter, that I realise that...hold on, I didn’t do much at all. But you know what? On closer inspection, I actually did do a lot. It’s just that the things that I did are not particularly exciting or novel. They’re just small steps in the everyday, but that together make for a rewarding life that I am grateful for every day. Some of these “small” things include:

• Coffee/meals with friends (three times!)

• Coffee/meals alone (three times!)

• Indulgent phone calls with friends and lovers (many times!)

• Hikes in nature, walks in suburbs, pilates in gym. I even cycled a stationary bike (hard work, that!)

• Fun hangouts and chats with my kids, every day. They are going through some wins right now, especially Micole, and it’s fun to watch them grow up. I really enjoy my kids.

• Weekend with G, friends, rugby. I made the dessert I mentioned last week (bread pudding) and it worked out great. A million and one calories, but who’s counting? (Not me!)

• Love my dog and my cat. These two are such characters. They’re still deciding if they are going to be friends, and in the meantime they are “co-existing”. I’ll take it as a win.

• Had a garden service to come and clean up my garden (so.many.leaves.everywhere.) and quote me on felling and shaping the trees and shrubs. It’s looking so much better already, and this is just the start.

• Am drinking Gluhwein as I write this (divine) and smelling the gorgeous rain, which is unusual for this time of the year, but oh-so-very welcome.

Free Therapy

Storytelling

I’ve spoken about this before here, but I am reminded of it over and over again: the power to tell a story is…well, it’s powerful, and being able to write stories is a gift that keeps on giving. I so often wish that I had a written account of the stories my dad used to tell me - he had some wild, crazy adventures in his too-short life. So I am in awe of people who can tell a good story (example: G!), written or oral, and then write it down.

I have always felt that I could not be one of those people and I know exactly where this sentiment came from. It was in my Grade 7 English class, run by Mrs Meyer. My desk partner was my best friend, Bernice, and Bernice was a writer. We first met in Grade 5, and the way she caught my attention is because our then-English teacher read out one of her essays in class (it was about moonlight!) and then took it to the Grade 7 class to read to them. No greater honour for an eleven-year old! Anyway, back in the Grade 7 class, Mrs Meyer asked us to write a three paragraph story of a bush fire. I mean, honestly!! Even now, I shudder to think how I would do this; only so many words for “scorching”. (Actually, I know how I would do it today…I’d ask AI. A discussion for another day!). So…I really struggled with this exercise and got a 6/10 for my efforts. In the meantime, as you can well imagine, Bernice breezed through it and got 10/10. Her description and story of the fire was vivid, detailed and frankly terrifying. I will never be able to write like that, I thought, correctly. This belief-system has stayed with me for forty years, and has shaped what I do and do not write.

Today, I am a bit wiser. I know that there are many ways to write, and being able to be speak in flowery, descriptive language is simply just one of them. My style of being more abrupt and factual does not mean I can’t tell stories - it simply means I need to hone my own writing voice and go for it.

Villains and vilifiers

Last week I spoke about the CEO caught out at the Coldplay concert, and at that point it was still kind of funny. But then, it stopped being funny very quickly. We forgot (or didn’t care): Andy Byron is a human being, with feelings and emotions, and a family. And all that exploded and imploded. Because of a short, unfortunate video that went viral, this man was vilified, torn apart and thrown to the curb. We were the judge and jury, the first to cast stones while living in glass houses. How many other people at that concert were in the middle having affairs, were stealing from their bosses, were abusing family members, were shit parents or just shit human beings? Many. When the majority of voters can elect a convicted felon and sex offender, it seems a bit rich to then take out their frustrations on a random person, who did not ask to be judged by the world. Clare Stephens said it well:

We don’t have to condone a couple having an affair, but we can also admit that it really isn’t any of our business.

Scams

I almost got scammed this week, in a very clever plot not worth repeating but one that involved my credit card and booked travels. Then, a friend took me out for breakfast to ask whether “a woman on TikTok who made six figures (in dollars!!) in two weeks and who says I can do the same can be trusted?”. (No!). Also, a group of U15 South African soccer players went to Spain to play in a tournament (parents paid $3k a kid) and then the parents found out that the return flights were not booked by the organisers, and the kids were stranded in Europe with no way to get home for over two weeks. The country literally had to have a go fund me campaign to bring them home. It’s a dangerous world out there. Keep your eyes open.

Nudity 

I now go to the gym (have I mentioned this? 🤣 ) and one thing I am amazed at is how the women walk around the change room, completely naked and unabashed. I don’t know why I find it so off-putting. I have no issues with my own nudity: I get into the change room, change, and leave. (I sometimes swim naked in G’s pool, and there is a tiny bit of the deck on which - if I stand exactly there - a neighbour might see me from their upstairs window, if they open their blinds and crane their necks. G is always a bit worried about this and reminds me, but my attitude is “if they really want to see me naked, let them”.) But these gym women act like they are a nudist camp. Yesterday - and this is a true story - one woman was butt naked while working on the changing bench on her laptop, and two cellphones. Another was blow drying her hair - bent forward to get the roots (I am laughing as I remember this, because it really was funny). I do feel as if this is very anti-feminist of me to talk about, and that I should be defending women’s rights to enjoy and display their bodies, and overall I do think I am supportive. But there are limits, and they are crossed at my gym. (I should also mention, that the named bodies are glorious. Many, if not most of them, are severely overweight, with rolls and rolls of fat, spilling everywhere, and it is beautiful to see the women comfortable in their own skin. That attitude I am hugely supportive of, no question!).

(What do you see first, below? 😆)

I’ve been watching…

This week we watched Deep Cover, which is a new comedy, available on Prime. We both agreed this movie “was better than it needed to be”, and at only just over 1hr30min long, is just the right length for a midweek movie snack. Which would have been great, but then…instead of going to sleep I started scrolling though the viewing options (bad, bad mistake) and lazily clicked on “You’re Cordially Invited” which was cute (only because Reese Whitherspoon is in it) but also stupid. Zac tells me it is the worst rated movie of last year, which I haven’t verified but can easily believe. Two hours I am not getting back.

Also: I hear Ted Lasso is already filming 4th season, The Devil Wears Prada II is filming in streets of New York, Only Murders in the Building Season 4 is coming September 9, and the next season of Project Runway is starting this week. Lots to watch if you have the time!

In the meantime, this week we are watching either The Color of Money or As Good As It Gets. Haven’t decided yet, but they’re both oldies.

Looking ahead…

I’m saying it now…this week is all about work, work, work. It’s piling up, and it needs to get done. Micole has her first face-to-face interview (hold thumbs) and Zac is going to be going to see Superman. I am getting back into math tutoring my star-student, since holidays are over. I might do an extra long hike, and more cardio in the gym. Would love to pick up a good fiction book, to help me relax.

Thanks for reading!

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P.S.