Sunday Smörgåsbord #052
Michelin-starred bites, early flights, and swinging Mormons. Plus the black leather skirt of my back-to-school dreams.
NB: [PW] signifies a paywall, though some providers allow you to read a set number of articles for free.
Hi friends and happy Sunday.
I spent the weekend half-passed out after a week of ‘back to school’ energy with personal and professional deadlines which threatened to overwhelm me. Funny how that can happen when you’re fresh off a holiday - I didn’t know what had hit me.
When it came to catching a 5am cab for my morning flight back home on Friday, I cursed past Emma for making such terrible decisions. When I saw Ryanair had randomly allocated me a seat right at the back of the plane, I cursed again. As it happened, the stars aligned: my window seat and wind conditions Friday morning meant I was treated to one of my favourite routes into the city, directly over the Arts and Sciences buildings (see main photo). There’s a lesson in all that, but I’m still too tired to figure out what it is. Answers on a postcard please.
I spent Saturday finally finding the time to finish my move from one flat to the other. My hoarding tendencies mean that even a few hours of sorting leaves me bone tired - thankfully with Andy’s help I moved almost everything except a few items to give to friends or charity.
Today then was the perfect Sunday to properly recharge a bit: my first run in weeks, a coffee with a good friend on a sunny terrace, followed by a walk in the campo (see Lifestyle). I’m convinced a Sunday walk in either nature or culture is always good for the nervous system. That plus writing this weekly round-up, which always reminds me what sustained my soul even in the maddest weeks. Thanks for being part of it!
Have a wonderful week.
Emma x
🍳 Recent servings, in case you missed them…
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📰 Features & Podcasts
‘Lesley Manville: Fame? I’m glad it didn’t happen in my twenties’, The Times [PW]. Despite being a working actor for years, it feels like Lesley Manville’s star has been firmly on the rise the last 5-10 years. That shouldn’t be a surprise given she’s been one of the UK’s best actresses ever since her first roles back on Emmerdale in the 70s and especially on starring in some of Mike Leigh’s most noteworthy films (see Secrets & Lies) in the 90s, but given she’s now in her sixties it’s unfortunately still noteworthy. My God, though, doesn’t she deserve it?! I am not sure I love anything more than an Autumn Renaissance of a (female) National Treasure. I did a double take a month or so ago on seeing her star in the latest Loewe ad campaign, set at Bekonscot model village, and she’s been popping up more and more on big and little screen appearances including lots of upcoming work to look forward to. Case in point: I loved series 1 of Sherwood & am looking forward / bracing myself to dig into series 2.
‘The dying art of the great song intro’, BBC News. I found this via a note by
(thank you!) and found it fascinating. Finding out that the average intro length of a song dropped by 78% between 1986 and 2015 didn’t surprise me, but it’s still mad to see it in such high figures, and I can only image it’s been cut down even more so since then. Now that social media has trained us like lab rats looking for instant gratification, artists are fighting for the short amount of time they have to grab our attention. The few times I still venture out to a club I find it infuriating that whole songs get reduced to twenty second literal sound bites before moving onto the next. A sign that I am officially a dinosaur and probably shouldn’t be going out to the club anymore…‘A Refresher on the Mormon MomTok Drama’, The Cut. I went on a rabbit hole this weekend about the new show ‘the real lives of Mormon wives. I don’t really know why other than shameless car crash voyeurism (what *is* soft swinging!?), but I do know I want to watch the show now.
🎨 Arts, Culture & Entertainment
Strictly is back this weekend and if you’ve read any of the reports over the summer about the alleged mistreatment of some celebrity dancers you’ll know it’s gone from light entertainment to drama. Will you still be watching? I have to confess I only recognise one celebrity (Toyah Wilcox) but I’ll probably watch for her alone!
On Friday I wrote about everything I read on my summer holiday. Since I’ve been back to reality, I’ve managed three chapters of something new. Tell me it’s not just me?
Slow Horses Series Three, Apple TV. We finished series three of Slow Horses so we could be ready and prepared for series four which just launched on September 4. My honest opinion of S3? A bit meh. I don’t want to give anything away about this well-loved British spy drama based on the books by Mick Herron…. but I had a feeling it was going to end the way it did, and whilst that usually makes me feel extremely smug, this time it only exasperated me. The characters, dialogue and execution are still fantastic, but the plot was a bit of a damp squib. No pressure, series four!
📺 What have you seen lately that’s worth a read, watch or listen? Let me know in the comments.
🍹 Lifestyle
Gymkhana, Mayfair. I’ve been wanting to go here for about ten years, and my Mum’s birthday plus six weeks foresight to book a table meant we finally made it! I’m pleased to say it lived up to expectations: each dish as exquisite and sumptuous as the wood-panelled downstairs dining room we were seated in. We shared the best aloo chaat I ever tasted, plus hunking great lamb chops covered in spices, and fried prawns served with a tangy sauce, plus a simple (but delicious) butter chicken, a spinach dish, and an array of sides. As you’d imagine from the Mayfair address (and Dua Lipa sitting with her boyfriend on the next table over) this is firmly posh treat territory: cost per head put us just under 100 quid per head though that did include a cocktail each, a bottle of wine to share, and the tip.
Black leather skirt, Reiss. Reiss has got some lovely stuff in at the moment and on a recent trip to Bath with Mum I spied this classic skirt. Aside from the staple black jacket, leather clothes and I have always been like ships in the night - when I lived in London the connotations were more Kat Slater than high fashion, and since it’s been back in vogue I’ve lived in hotter, sweatier climes. But trying this on was like a revelation: the leather is super thin, super soft, and a perfect (for me) A-Line shape that I can dress up or down (I came of age in the ‘from day to night’ magazine feature era, after all). I think this might be my new favourite purchase.
Sunday hike to Castilo de Aledua, Valencia. After about a month away I was ready to be back in Valencia, away from glitzy Mayfair and black leather skirts to something a little more rustic. Today we drove the forty minutes out to the fringes of El Tello park to hike around the castle of Aledua. Don’t expect anything like Windsor, this is a twelfth-century Arabic tower we’re talking, hence it’s name: Al-Edua, which means related to the shores of the river. It’s not a castle you can climb up unfortunately - not anymore, anyway, but we enjoyed a walk around the lemon groves and pine trees in the still-blazing September sun.
That’s it for this week. I hope you find something in this list that sparks joy or curiosity.
If you’ve got any recommendations on articles, podcasts, Substacks or shows for me to dive into, please drop them in the comments. Until next time!
❤️ Thank you for reading. If you liked this post don’t forget to hit the heart to let me know and help others find my writing.
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love that skirt!
the dying art of the song intro is so interesting! and extremely true