(Friend)ship shape

It's not just circles

I recently read this article by Holly Wainwright about a fall out between celeb mums.

The article goes on to discuss female friendship in all its complexity and glory.

It got me thinking. When I was in my 20s, I had super intense friendships. Many dramas, much drinking (could be connected?).

In my 30s, I started meditating, working on myself and taking anxiety meds. My friendships chilled out a bit (could be connected?).

These days, my friendships are collected treasures; the things I would save in a housefire, along with my family, the cat and the photo albums.

I know my shape, and I have a better sense of the friends that fit me.

I know it in my body when someone, or a group of people, is right for me. And while all relationships require effort, the ones that match feel like an exchange rather than an extraction.

In its purest form, friendship is a symbiosis that supports, sustains and helps us thrive.

It encourages you to be your whole self, and loves you for it.

Don’t look for friendship in inhospitable places. Find it where it grows wild and grow wild along with it.

Watching

The Night Manager

Great joy! Tom Hiddlestone is back as <insert new alias here>.

A decade after the addictive intrigue of S1 comes this equally enthralling spy series.

Picking up ten years later, The Night Owl division stumbles across a familiar face from S1. This face leads them on a dangerous mission to Medellin, Colombia, and deep into money laundering, drug smuggling and political instability.

Waiting for the next episode to drop is TORTURE because this is so gripping.

Watch it on Prime now.

In Your Dreams

Looking for an animated movie to watch with the kids? Something decent that you haven’t watched, ad nauseum?

In Your Dreams is a funny, well-written sibling adventure movie made by Netflix animation studios (what now? Yep, Netflix is now Pixar-ing).

Straight-one-eighty big sister, Stevie, and her ratbaggy little bro, Elliott, take a trip to the dream world to ask The Sand Man to help keep their parents together. Despite a nod to heavier themes, In Your Dreams is cinematic fairy floss that is delicious for the whole family.

Watch it now on Netflix.

Listening

The Cat Empire

These guys are so much fun to listen to and they’re playing the Red Hot Summer Tour around the country right now. Check out their new album, Bird in Paradise.

Reading

Wuthering Heights

Is anybody else going to prep for the new Emerald Fennell (aka Saltburn director) movie by reading Emily Bronte’s book?

I realise I am a philistine but who cares?! Charlie XCX has done the soundtrack. It’s going to be epic. CANNOT WAIT.

Shopping

Affordable Korean skincare

There is so much hype around Korean skincare and my radiantly youthful neighbour, Vicki, tipped me off about some products she’s been using.

They are called PDRN Pink Collagen Capsules, SKIN1004 Tone Brightening Capsules and Probio Cica Enrich Cream, and VT Cosmetics Reedle Shot 100 - pics below.

My kid just bought me some Zappos sour grape lollies from the shop. He had enough coins from his money box to buy two packs. They tasted exactly like 1988 Hubba Bubba bubble gum.

I hope your week is full of that kind of sweetness; sunny, funny, goofy goodness.

Love you loads,

Em xxx