Sunday Smörgåsbord #056
Kill lists, motherloads, and burger night. Oh, and just one more thing...
NB: [PW] signifies a paywall, though some providers allow you to read a set number of articles for free.
Happy Sunday, friends,
Life at the moment feels a lot like the plotting I’m doing for my first (and at this rate, only) novel: one step forward, two steps back.
After two months in my new place I finally got a bed, but it didn’t come with slats, so I’m currently bedding out in the living room. I got a dining table too, but, well, you’ll read more about that later.
Thank God then for flowers. Sixteen euros and a couple of dahlias, roses and whatnots later, and all feels right again in the world. They even gave me the inspiration to sit down and spend six hours straight working on plotting said novel. It’s easier to wrestle with a bunch of difficult (fictional) people when your gaze can drift to these beauties for sustenance.
Buying flowers also reminds me that there is no stopping life. It happens to us, and around us. We lurch forward, we slide back - and nine times out of ten we have no control over either movement.
So drink the good wine, use up the good bubble bath and, yes, buy the flowers. Let’s make the backdrop to the chaos beautiful, when and where we can.
Emma x
🍳 Recent servings, in case you missed them…
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📰 Features & Podcasts
‘The world's sixth 'Blue Zone': Why Singapore values both quantity and quality of life’, BBC. I was initially surprised to see Singapore named one of the world’s the ‘blue zones’, those parts of the world where the population tend to live longer and healthier lives. The cuisine is delicious but rich (I gained the obligatory Singapore stone a few months into my five years living there), and it felt like every other MRT station had diabetes warnings plastered along the walls warning us not to eat too much rice. But reading this article, it seems ads just like the one I mention are paying off. As a result Singapore is the only addition to the Blue Zone list because of long-term government policy (such as ‘sin taxes’ on alcohol and cigarettes) rather than inherent cultural practices and traditions. Next month marks nine years since I moved there, and it’s fascinating (if a little terrifying for me personally) to start to see the impact of these government changes. And though Singapore benefits from a rather unique situation and political position, it does show the possibilities open to nations if they adopted a little more long-term thinking.
Kill List [podcast, link via Spotify]. It’s the 2020 Covid Pandemic and journalist Carl Miller is approached by hacker Chris Monteiro about a worrying discovery. He’s found a shadowy online figure named Yura offering hitmen services for cash on the dark web. Their initial investigation shows the site appears to be a scam. But what’s not fake is the hundreds of people paying Yura thousands of bitcoin to bump off their enemies, exes and family members. Carl and Chris embark on a mission to inform as many of the c.600 names on the list, before it’s too late. I started listening to this on a run, and was so hooked that I came home and immediately listened to the next two episodes. What’s surprising too is the nature of the ‘targets’. Carl himself mentions they imagined many of the hits would be organised crime-related. In fact, many of them are women, targeted by current or ex-partners.
‘Portugal proposes decade of tax breaks for young people to stem brain drain’, The Guardian. Living in Spain, where tax is high and, for entrepreneurs, rather punitive, I’ve become more interested in how we use tax to incentivise behaviour. This approach from Portugal is a novel one, and I think it could work, though it also counts on having a system which isn’t easily undermined by ‘black money’ via under the table payments.
The Motherload, by Zoe Scaman, via a LinkedIn post by Cindy Gallop, below. If you have a spare 15 minutes I’d recommend you flick through this arresting manifesto by Zoe Scaman which can apply to so many industries outside of advertising. If you’re a man and/or a leader in your workplace, I’d implore you to.
🎨 Arts, Culture & Entertainment
The Sixth Sense, dir. M. Night Shyamalan (1999). I somehow never saw this classic 90s film, despite always knowing the ending. I think I was caught between being slightly too young to watch it, but young enough that I spent the next five years being told what the end was via friends or popular culture. Given I still watched quite a few scenes through my fingers at the age of 37, it was probably good I didn’t see it back then. Did you see the end coming? Let me know in the comments - but no spoilers please!
This weekend’s Saturday night viewing: Ludwig on BBC1 Ludwig, BBC One and iPlayer. We’ve started watching this new BBC comedy drama with David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin, about a puzzle-solver who becomes an accidental detective, quite literally, when his identical twin brother goes missing. It’s a nice, easy watch, and laugh-out-loud funny in parts, but I’m not quite sure about it yet. I love a mystery when we get to solve it along with the protagonist (I am a self-professed crime-lover who doesn’t love Sherlock Holmes for this exact reason), and Mitchell’s Ludwig is a so clever we miss out on a lot of the whirring cogs which makes these sorts of shows so satisfying. I’m keen to keep going with it though and am loving the slightly hammy guest stars.
‘Try and Catch me’, Columbo Series 7. Columbo was the TV show of my childhood, and I still roll out the episodes on a rare sick day. Feeling a bit under the weather yesterday I decided to run a bath and treat myself to the episode which started it all (with me): ‘Try and Catch Me’. A famous mystery novelist suspects her nephew by marriage of murdering his wife, her niece, so she asphyxiates him by locking him in her safe. It’s camp, clever, and genuinely quite disturbing! It also features what I think is the most ‘chef’s kiss’ of denouements in the series’ history.
📺 What have you seen lately that’s worth a read, watch or listen? Let me know in the comments.
🍹 Lifestyle
Homemade burgers, recipe via A Spicy Perspective. Two months into my new flat and I finally have a dining table! I celebrated by inviting Andy and the girls over to mine for a Saturday burger night. I wanted something easy to prep a few hours in advance, easy to make in a big batch, and that we could eat on the sofa after I realised I bought a table, but no chairs to go with it… In truth this burger recipe was the first one I hit on when I googled, but I plumped for it because it was straightforward and didn’t overdo it on the add-in ingredients. They went down a treat on toasted buns, with sliced tomato, red onion and jalapeños to garnish, and an obligatory layer of molten cheddar cheese on top. As a side, I served up some homemade chips that might just be the best I’ve ever made. A proper Saturday night dinner.
3D Moisture Infusion Facemask, Sarah Chapman. I didn’t just have a bath with Peter Falk (Colombo) yesterday, but Sarah Chapman too. Once every couple of months I wash my hair, wrap it in a towel, get in the bath and stick one of these ultra-luxe facemasks on whilst I while away an hour or so with a 70s detective series on in the background. My kind of self-care! At about fifty quid for a pack of four, this sadly can’t be a weekly habit, but I’ve used these masks for about five years and they’re still the best I’ve ever tried. The hydration results are obvious and immediate, they last a couple of days minimum, and if you wrap the mask and pop in the fridge you can get another use or two out of it. The perfect stocking filler to put on your Christmas list.
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.
📮 And if you’re not yet subscribed, all editions of Sunday Smörgåsbord are free forever. Sign up for free and get next week’s in your inbox.
Oooh yes, I feel exactly the same about having fresh flowers in the house! They give me inspiration and just change my entire mood 💛
Yay! Debut novel progress. 🫶🏻🥳 Love it, Emma!