Hi !  Welcome back. Fun fact: April 10 (Thursday) is the 100th day of the year. And..happy first birthday to this newsletter! On April 6th (today) it’s a year to the date that I sent the first one out. More on that below. This week I am thinking (and writing) about lessons learnt, plans moving forward, colour, and binge watching shows on Friday nights - Eve D.❣️

Week in review…

😲 Oops: I usually write this newsletter on a Friday evening, as a gentle welcome to the weekend, but this past Friday instead of writing I was binge watching the second season of Shrinking. (I am hooked. I still have 3 episodes to go, but I absolutely highly recommend it. You'll fall in love with all the characters, I promise.) Then, I spent the weekend with G and as far away from a computer as possible, so … this newsletter is late, and it’s brief. Sorry.

⛈️ It rained. Regular readers will now note that it has been raining and raining and raining for weeks, if not months. On the one hand I love it, and definitely prefer it to a heatwave, on the other everything is permanently damp and muddy, and I just want a break now, and a bit of sun.

🤔 I worked on my new venture, which I was supposed to tell you about this week but will now push that out to next week. I know what I am doing, but I have very little idea of how to do it, so the week has been a steep learning curve.

😺 My new (wild) cat loves me, and now runs up to it every time he sees me, demanding scratches and love. My kids tell me it’s because I feed it, and it’s manipulating me, but that’s what I think they do with me, so I am used to it.

🧹 I purged and cleaned my house this week, and I feel great. As my friend Laura says, cleaning is a good form of (free!) therapy. I agree.

👟 I walked. I am still determined to walk 100km (60 miles) in April, but G has offered to take me hiking “up a proper mountain” in preparation for my (possible) Camino, and I am telling you now I am counting each one of those mountain kilometers as five.

🍰 I baked a cake! It’s a Guiness Chocolate cake (yes, Guiness is an ingredient, as is a ton of sugar), and I used Nigela’s recipe. It came out perfect. I wasn’t mad about the icing, but I used regular cream instead of whipping cream, so that’s probably why. It’s an easy, but delicious cake. I recommend it!

🤽 I spent the weekend watching adult men play in a water polo tournament, and it was lively and different. It’s an exhausting and difficult sport, and I really admire men who choose to participate with such intensity, for fun. I can also officially say: I enjoy being a spectator. Just am not the sporty type.

Free therapy

Lessons learnt….

Happy Birthday to this newsletter! I have written 53 editions (you can read them all here) and well over 120k words, which is equivalent to a book (or two!). Here are some things I learnt:

First, and most important: I love to write and at least some people enjoy reading it. I am overjoyed by this.

Second: writing the newsletter is very time consuming. A month or so ago I decided I would continue write for the full year on a weekly schedule, and then switch over to writing once a month. But then I spent a couple hours re-reading my old newsletters, and I realised that I love having a weekly snapshot of where I am in life, what I’m doing, what I’m thinking about. If I didn’t have a written record of it, I would long have forgotten many of the details. This way, I have a diary, even if it is somewhat public and somewhat reserved. So I’m sticking to the weekly schedule, but will need to find more efficient systems (and no, AI will not be writing it for me!).

Third: I am very proud of myself for staying consistent, and not missing a week of writing. I learnt something about myself this past week, on the back of a discussion I had with a friend: I only do things that are important and urgent. Everything else I put off. To be clear, this is a terrible approach and I do not recommend it. It causes stress, panic, less than stellar work results, etc. But I find high hope from the fact that I did write a newsletter religiously for 53 weeks, with only a self imposed deadline. This means I simply need to do more stuff that I enjoy, and put in stricter systems for the more boring stuff.

Fourth: I find myself wanting to write more personal stuff, but am not thrilled to have it available for just anyone to read. I think I have a solution for this (see below).

Changes incoming….

(I think) I have decided to move this newsletter to Substack because that’s where most of the serious writers are, and I would like to one day be a serious writer myself. Also, it’s a platform that’s made for networking, discussion, community etc.

Substack is somewhat synonymous with paid content. Writers often charge readers $5-$10/m for their newsletter, with some fraction of the content available for free. I find this extremely annoying and frustrating: I start reading a newsletter, I get hooked on the content, and then mid-way through it I am told I must subscribe and pay to read the rest. I will not be doing that, ever. Which is not to say that I will never have an option to pay for my writing. I can imagine a world in which I send a deep, more personal essay once a week or once a month in return for a paid subscription. But that will be separate from this weekly drop, and in any case, if I ever do do this all of you who are current subscribers will get free lifetime subscription from me. So no harm done.

In theory, my Substack move doesn’t affect you, the reader, at all. Hopefully the transition will be smooth and you will see the newsletter in your inbox as usual. If not, search for “Sneakers and Heels” in your email, because maybe it was sent to spam or some other folder.

Rainbows and unicorns

I told you I am binge-watching Shrinking, and I don’t want to give you any spoilers but I do need to say that I am obsessed with one of the character’s style. Gaby is a psychologist who loves colour and pattern, and everything about her feels more energetic and fun because of it.

I mean….just look at that office. I want that art, those cushions, that joy. I am serious! The inspiration runs strong. I was working on the branding of my new venture (details next week… promise…maybe!) and the logo has nine colours in it 🤣 . Usually, I am more of a classic, subdued look, but I am changing that. Not everything in my life needs to be bright and colorful, but a lot more things do need to be. And thus they shall!

I’ve been watching…

Last week we watched a modern version of an oldie movie (Down with Love) and this week we watched an actual oldie, His Girl Friday. The movie is set in a newsroom, so you know immediately that you will experience a lot of “ah, the good old days” feels. Lots of typewriters, standup phones and telegrams. But don’t expect a gentle movie…the script does not let up once: its quick, vicious even, and the main story (the love story) is actually a subplot throughout the 90 minutes. I enjoyed it, and if you are into oldies this one is a classic. (The full movie is available to watch on Youtube. Click below).

Next week we are watching The Way. It’s about the Camino ( 🤣 ).

Thanks for reading!

Want more? You can find past editions here.

Want to chat? You can email me privately by hitting reply on this email. I read and reply to all :-)